Children of the Legend: Dawning
by chibikurohikitsune and Nimeria
Summary: It appears to be a normal day in Atlantis, but the city is having a bit of a glitch. Ashlei Sheppard may hold the key to fixing this glitch, but what is so special about her, and will her overprotective father even let her try?
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **_Children of the Legend: Dawning_

**Summary: **It appears to be a normal day in Atlantis, but the city is having a bit of a glitch. Ashlei Sheppard may hold the key to fixing this glitch, but what is so special about her, and will her overprotective father even let her try?

**Rating: **T

**The all important disclaimer: **Stargate Atlantis, its characters, settings, and themes are NOT mine. The Only things that belong to me are the things you don't recognize.

**Author's note: **Hi people, this is Nimeria, welcome to my latest Fan fiction, _Dawning._ Yes, I said MY. My dearest Chibi is currently busy with her own Harry Potter based story that is being updated at a very slow rate. Sadly I cannot help you with this. Chibi posts when Chibi posts. This story, Dawning, is the first of a series of at least four stories detailing…. Well, I'm not gonna tell you the details just yet. You'll just have to read and find out. Ok, so. There will be a follow up author's note at the end of this chapter. So please don't forget to read it because it explains a few things. So until the next note… Laters. Oh. P.S. because of the prologue, this chapter is like two chapters so… have fun. And it could be awhile before an update because I'm lazy and like to procrastinate everything that I can, especially now that my research paper is in.

**Thank you: **To my dearest Bann, my beta and my dear friend, also for keeping me from going too crazy with this. To my darling twinling, Chibi, for poking me to keep writing and not ever letting the story get too serious.

**Prologue**

An old woman sat comfortably in an armchair pushed into a corner of her room. Normally, when one thinks of old women sitting in comfy chairs, they envision a frail-looking, grey-haired lady, whose veins are clearly visible, and whose eyes are tired, alone in a room in a nursing home. But this woman isn't frail-looking. The white in her naturally black hair gives it a blue-ish color. You can hardly see her veins and her eyes are full of spark. She isn't in a nursing home and she is definitely not alone.

Fourteen children are running around the room playing tag. Two more sit on her bed and another is hiding in her closet. The fourteen running about seem to be ages six to eleven; the one in the closet, five, and the two on the bed about thirteen. The old woman surveys the chaos before here with a fond look on her face. But these kids are here for a reason and its time for her to calm them.

"Alright, ya little hooligans, settle down. Sasha, stop biting your brother. Kyle, don't pull on her hair. Mary, sweetie, it's okay. You can come on out of the closet. All of you sit over here on the floor. Get comfy because this is a long tale." With much coaxing, eventually all seventeen kids are gathered at her feet. A soft smile graces her aging face as the children before her bring back memories of times long past. "Now, you want to hear a story?"

Choruses of 'yes' and 'yay' assault her ears and she takes yet another few minutes quieting them again.

"I have just the thing." She pulls a book from a drawer in the nightstand beside her. The cover is tattered and the color faded. "But before I begin, I should give you a bit of a background story." She closes her eyes for a moment to think. "Ah. Yes. Here we go then.

"Many years ago, a team of explores set out from Earth through the device we know as the Stargate in search of the Lost City of Atlantis. They found the city, built by a race of beings called the Ancients, abandoned on the bottom of the ocean, protected only by a shield that started to fail almost as soon as the expedition arrived. They tried everything they could think of to maintain the power to the shield, but their technology was too inferior to generate anywhere near enough power. It appeared that the glorious Lost City would have to be abandoned yet again and lost forever to the sea.

"Then, the failsafe, created by the Ancients to save their city, activated and Atlantis rose to the surface. The expedition settled in, but not all was happy and safe. In their attempts to save their lost people, the New Atlanteans woke the Wraith. Not just a few, but all; all of the Wraith, awake, hungry, and searching for those who now lived in the City of the Ancients. But the Wraith were not the only enemy the New Atlanteans would make in their time. The Asurans were also glad at every chance they got to cause pain to the expedition.

"The expedition was, however, not friendless in this galaxy. The first race they ever encountered, the Athosians, became their closest friends, and after a rocky start and despite the fate that trust was never unwavering, the Genii also befriended the Atlanteans.

"Time wore on and the New Atlanteans did many things. They created miracles. They fought the Wraith and the Asurans with more success than anyone who came before. They saved planets from destruction and cured disease. And so these New Atlanteans slowly worked their way from heroes to legends.

"But this is not their story. Nor do they feature prominently. No, this story is about those who followed. The ones who would inhabit Atlantis after the original expedition was dead and gone. This story is about the children of the expedition. The Children of the Legend, if you will. But to be honest, the story isn't even about all of that generation, my generation.

"This story is mainly about four young girls. Three were the daughters of members of the Atlantis Senior Staff, and the other the daughter of the leader of the SGC on Earth. Three of the four girls were friends almost from birth and the fourth joined their circle at some point in their youth.

"Over time, the girls grew together. They became inseparable. They matured in to lovely, intelligent and highly gifted women each at the top of her field. Eventually they would create their own legend.

"But this story starts long before that. This story starts with the tale of an event that began a chain reaction that would eventually lead to the re-evolving of the Ancient Race and the re-establishment of Atlantis as a place of safety and power in this galaxy." The old woman stopped of a moment and happily took in her enraptured audience. She flashed a sparkling smile at the young girl right in front of her and opened the book sitting in her lap.

"This story was written in great detail by people who actually experienced it. If you listen very closely and close your eyes, you may very well hear the falling footsteps, and alarms sounding, or the rain and thunder of a storm. So listen closely, close those eyes and allow yourselves to be transported back in time to the beginning of a new era." Then the old woman looked at the page and began to read.

**Chapter 1: Good Morning Atlantis**

It was dawn in the city of Atlantis. The sun was shining and the rain that had been persistent for the last week or so had finally stopped. The 'gate was quiet and those who had the dawn shift in the control room were relaxing. Across the walkway, Elizabeth Weir's office was vacant, its regular occupant having been coaxed away from her paperwork to sleep by a combination of exhaustion and the undeniable puppy dog face of a certain messy haired Colonel, who also happened to be her husband.

The quiet of the city extended, amazingly, even down to the mostly empty science labs. A few of the junior staff who had been unlucky enough to be chosen to keep an eye on the ongoing experiments sat around a small lab table, sipping coffee and having a small debate on the best tactics to staying clear of the bad side of the Chief of Science, who was harsh enough even to those on his good side, and not irritating his occasionally hard to understand second, who was prone to yelling in Czech, beyond said chief's ability to endure. Both of the aforementioned were, thankfully and by some small miracle, absent as they too were catching up on sleep.

Even the infirmary was quiet and mostly empty, the most serious injuries being a broken ankle and a fractured wrist, and the patients in question were only being held until morning to ensure they slept. In his office, on a cot put there for just this reason, the enthusiastic Scottish CMO dozed gently, taking a break from whatever it was on the computer screen on his desk.

Down in Senior Staff Quarters all was quiet. The corridor had been designated as such because obviously, this was where the senior staff had eventually chosen to have their quarters since the rooms were of fairly good size, practically dead center of the city, and rather hard to find if you didn't know where to look, thereby making it easier for a few choice members of the staff to hide from paperwork and annoying underlings who couldn't take a hint. The new CO of the Daedalus snored quietly in his temporary quarters. Down the hall, the head Athosian slept peacefully in the room across the hall from the sleeping leader of Atlantis. The other rooms down that particular corridor were also silent as their occupants enjoyed the peace, though a few rooms were missing one of their occupants.

On a catwalk somewhere in the city, two of those people were out for their morning run. The run was going as it usually did, with the dread-locked Satedan leading and the semi-silver haired bed-headed Air Force General attempting to keep up. In his defense, it must be said that John Sheppard was doing better that he used to, but Ronan could still run his butt into the ground.

In the tallest spire of the East pier at the very top there is a room. At least, by some definitions it could be called a room. The chamber has twelve sides. One is occupied by a transporter, the only access to the level. The one directly across the room is a sliding glass like door that leads to the balcony that wraps all the way around that floor of the tower. The area between is occupied by tables and couches that fold out into beds. These are set in various groupings. In the dead center of the room a large flat screen TV sits on a table. On one side sits a DVD player and on the other the latest version of the Play Station game system. A large number of the couches and tables are grouped around the TV.

One of these couches is folded out into a bed and is occupied by a sixteen-year-old girl with dark brown hair. At the moment her hair is slightly tousled, but it is about shoulder length and is gently wavy. She is wearing a loose grey T-shirt over her khaki pants. Her tennis shoes lie on the floor next to the bed and the whole image gives the impression that she hadn't bothered changing when she had gone to bed the night before. However, since she is fast asleep and, rare occurrence such as it is for her to be not just sleeping but sleeping in an actual bed, she rather takes after her father in that respect. I think we'll leave her alone for now.

The other ten sides of the Central Chamber are all doors, each leading to a bedroom and attached bathroom. All ten rooms are occupied by kids ranging from ages seventeen to seven. While most of the rooms are quiet and serene, in one of them the lighting is flashing and small beeps are being emitted by the strange looking device on the bedside table. This room's occupant is also a teenage girl. Her messy, boy-cropped black hair is oddly reminiscent of her father's, and she has managed to kick the sheets off her bed. She is sleeping with her head on the bed, not the pillow, and is wearing a dark red tank top over a camisole of the same color and light grey sleep pants.

This messy haired person, ladies and gentlemen, is me, Ashlei Marie Sheppard. Yes, I said Sheppard, as in John, as in the Military CO of Atlantis. Elizabeth? Yep, she's my mom.

Anyway the person in the bed is me and the beeping is actually my alarm clock, or at least the Ancients version of one, and the lights, well, I'm not real sure what's wrong with the lights. Groaning, I roll over and attempt to smack the alarm clock to turn it off. As usual, I miss the first few times. Finally my hand makes contact and the beeping stops. I sit up and swing my legs over the edge of the bed, wincing slightly as my feet make contact with the cold tile floor. No carpet. The control room has carpet, mother's office has carpet. Heck even Central Chamber has carpet. But do the bedrooms have carpet? Nope. They're cold, icy tile.

Even as I'm ranting about it in my head I feel the floor heat up under my feet. I grin happily. Score one for the Ancient gene. Now that my attention isn't fully concentrated on the floor, I notice that the lights are still flashing. Touching the Ancient trigger in my mind, I think 'Stop' at the lights. They continue to flicker on and off. I frown. 'Stop' I think more firmly. The lights continue with their flashing. My frown deepens. While having trouble getting the gene activated systems can be a problem for some people, I grew up in this city. It never does this to me. Ever.

Closing my eyes, I hold tightly to the Ancient trigger and think 'STOP' as loudly and firmly as I can. For a minute I think it isn't going to work as the lights flicker again, but then the lights click on and this time they stay on. I stand up, relieved.

"_Lady, you must speak with me_." Falling back onto the bed in surprise, I snap my head around, looking for the person who had spoken. But there is no one else. I remain sitting on the bed in confusion for a minute. Then my eye catches the clock. 7 AM. I blink the rack my memory, trying to figure out why the hell I'm up this early, and on a Sunday, too.

Then it hits me. Sunday. No classes. My eyes flick to the door in the back of my room that leads to the wrap around balcony. I can see the ocean through the railing. Nice weather and good waves. I feel my face light up with glee. We're going to the mainland to go surfing. Or at least, that's my plan. I'm sure we can get someone to take us. I dash out of my room in to the 12-sided Central room, and encounter the aforementioned dark brown haired girl sleeping on the couch bed. She didn't bother to change out of her clothes when she went to bed last night, but though I feel a faint twinge of irritation at her, in not as irked as I normally might be.

This is Del, well really her name's Delilah but she hates being called that. So we just call her Del. Her last name is McKay; yes that McKay believe it or not, and she has the trademark ice blue eyes and the scientific know-how that go with the name. Del, at sixteen, is a year younger than I am, and, though from the way we snipe at each other you couldn't really tell, we are best friends. I may have mentioned we take after our dads. That's going to come up a lot, so get used to that.

I pause a moment, considering whether or not to wake her up. I decide to go get my other friend first, that way she catches some extra sleep. I shuffle as quietly as possible across the room to a door on the other side. I guess I should mention that, because it's a twelve sided room and sometimes it's hard to keep the sides straight, we've done a kind of military directional thing and each side is a clock time. For instance, the main room balcony door is 12 o'clock, the transporter is 6, and my room is 8 o'clock. The room I'm headed to is 1 o'clock.

I open the door with a mental command and am relieved to see it work on the first try. I walk into the room and survey its occupant in mild amusement. The room itself is a lot neater than mine, but its owner? Chaos. The girl's caramel colored hair is all over the place, the sheets are on the floor, and her pillow is under her feet because she somehow managed to flip upside down in her sleep so her head was at the foot of the bed. Yet despite all this, she somehow still manages to appear calm and serene. A walking, or in this case sleeping, contradiction our Rayne is. Not that we'd ever tell her that to her face. Great friend she may be, but Rayne is a Dex, and she, like her parents (Ronon and Teyla if you can't figure that one out) has no problem looking scary when she needs to. Oh and just in case you're wondering, Rayne is a year older than I am.

I creep over to the bed as quietly as possible.

"Rayne," I whisper. "Ray-ayne" I stop moving as I reach her bed. Leaning down as close to her face as I deem safe, I smirk slightly

"Ray-"

_SLAM!_

Next thing I know, I'm flat on my back on the cold, tile floor, which, as I forgot to mention, is also extremely hard. Rayne's appears over the edge of the bed and she laughs softly at me, her dark brown eyes twinkling with mischief.

"Ashlei," she says levelly, somehow managing to remove the smile from her face. "What are you doing on my floor?" straightforward and to the point, even when she's trying really hard not to laugh in my face.

"Well, you see Rayne," I answer back, gamely. "I just couldn't get comfortable in my bed last night so I decided to see how comfortable your floor was." I sit up slowly, wary of another 'attack' from her quarter.

"I'm sure." Then there's a brilliant flash of teeth as she smiles again and moves to stand up. Her feet hit the now heated floor and she blinks in surprise at the warmth. She looks at me as she stands up and offers me a hand up.

"Thanks." We both say at the same time.

"Welcome." Again we speak in unison. We laugh slightly and then Rayne gets right back to the point.

"So what _are_ you doing here? At…" she glances at her clock and give a short cry. "7:15 AM?!"

"Yeah," I start sheepishly. "Sorry for the early wake up call but we gotta go."

"Where exactly?"

"Mainland of course." My friend regards me for a minute then sighs.

"Surfing?"

"How'd you know?" I feign amazement at her insight.

"Lucky guess." Another sigh. Rayne doesn't really like mornings. "Go get Del up."

I smile happily, the bounce out of Rayne's room to the Central. I bounce all the way over to and then onto Del's bed. My knees bounce inches from her side and she jerks awake as she is forcibly bounced upward slightly on the bed. She doesn't make a sound or say anything. Just glares at me with her penetrating blue eyes. Anyone who wasn't as close to Del as I was might have turned and run away to hide, but I just grinned.

"Morning Del!" I greet brightly. Realizing that it's not doing her any good, she stops glaring at me.

"Whadyawa?" she whines, which is Del morning speak for 'what do you want'.

"Time to get up!" I start jumping up and down on my knees so she is continually jolted around and unable to go back to sleep. She glances at the clock on the nearby coffee table and moans. She then grabs one of her pillows and pulls it over her head. With a slight growl, Del throws her pillow off her head and glares at me again, any trace of morning-ness completely gone.

"Ashlei, this is my bed! _Not_ a trampoline!" Del snaps angrily and this time her glare works and I immediately stop bouncing.

"But you gotta get up." I protest.

"Ash, it's not even 7:30. We don't get up this early when we have classes. Today is Sunday, we don't have classes. So why _must_ I get up?" she demands, and while normally I might have kept playing around, I could tell she was getting miffed and I wanted to come with Rayne and I, so I decided to just tell her.

"Because we gotta get ready to go. We got to eat and change, and get our stuff together. Find one of the adults and get them to come with us."

"Where?" 

"The mainland of course. It's a lovely day, and we're going surfing." I answer happily.

"Decide this just now did you?"

"No, right before I fell asleep last night." Del stares at me, and then groans.

"I can't believe you woke me up for this." But she gets up and moves off the bed anyway. I smile inwardly. Del may whine and complain but in truth I think she's glad that I always want to take her along. She turns around and gives me a meaningful look and I slide off her bed. Del waves a hand over a panel by the foot of the bed, and it folds itself back up into a couch. I flop down on it immediately and Del rolls her eyes and shakes her head. The she walks to my room to shower and change.

When we first discovered this place a year ago or so, Rayne, Del, and I immediately decided that we wanted to move out here. Naturally, as soon as our siblings found out about it they wanted to come, too. But that would have left the little Beckett kids all alone down in the corridor the lot of us used to live in and that wasn't fair to them so we asked them to come with us. Only thing was that made eleven kids and only ten bedrooms, so we had a bit of a problem. Or so I thought.

Del, on the other hand, saw no problem whatsoever. She'd realized rather quickly that the couches folded in Central folded out into beds. One of us could just sleep there and share closet and bathroom with one of the others. She even volunteered. Rayne and I protested loudly as Del had been the one to originally lead us up here. But she rationalized it out as she was rarely in her room anyway and she needed to come and go and wouldn't wake anyone else up this way. She had a point so we let her have her way, and she shares my closet and bathroom.

As I lay comfortably on the couch, Rayne walked out of her room. She'd changed form her sleep clothes into day clothes, which she likely already had over her board shorts and top. She had brushed her hair and pulled it back into a loose ponytail at the nape of her neck. She is carrying her lime green Crocs (courtesy of the latest Daedalus run) and her Athosian made leather sandals in the other. She holds them up for me to see.

"Which ones?" she asks me. I consider the shoes and then the dark green skirt made of a loose breezy fabrics and the lighter green shirt of a kind of shiny material. It wasn't as loose at the skirt but it wasn't exactly what could be called tight either. I guess the best way to describe it would be to say it had been a little to big then shrunk a tad more than perfect in the wash. The sleeves cam to a little above her elbows and the neck cut deep but laced up.

"Definitely the sandals, Rayne." I insist. "The Crocs are nice and all but lime green clashes with the darker shades." She looks down at her clothes and back to her shoes.

"You know, that's a good point." Then she sets the crocs down on a nearby table before sitting on the armrest of the couch and proceeding to strap the sandals to her feet. "So Del's up and changing or did she never make it back up here last night?"

"She's changing. She slept in her clothes but…"

"She slept."

"Yeah." I hear a door swoosh open behind me and I turn to see a boy with sleep mussed brown hair and half lidded light green eyes. He's just wearing his boxers and is still too asleep to notice that I'm not the only one I the room.

This is Aaron. He's my brother and he's older than me by about three minutes. We're triplets. My younger brother you'll meet later. He tends to sleep really late. Aaron brushes his hair out of his eyes and looks at me.

"Ash-" He stops as he notices Rayne. Then he blinks as if trying to get his brain to compute the fact that she's there. His face flushes beet red, and he turns around and dashes back to his room, just next to mine at 7 o'clock. I turn to look at Rayne who just raises an eyebrow at me as I break into a fit of giggles.

"What are you giggling about?" Del asks me as she walks out of my room and over to us. "Morning Rayne." She adds. Rayne nods at her and I manage to calm down long enough to answer her question.

"My brother is an idiot."

"Most are." She quips. "And if you're just now figuring this out then I worry about you."

"I knew." I protest defensively. "But you asked why I was giggling and I told you." I roll of the couch and onto my feet before heading back to my room to change. I wouldn't bother with a shower. In an hour or so I'd be so coated in salty sea water and sand it wouldn't matter.

I walk to my closet and think it open. It hesitates a moment, then slides open. I frown then shrug. I'll mention the problem to Rodney if it keeps up. But only then, he is busy enough as it is. I turn my attention to my half of the closet.

My clothing, besides the uniform cargo pants and frame fitting white t-shirt that I wear when I have classes, isn't really all that varied. Several pairs of jeans in varying shades of dark blue and one pair of black jeans, three or four of black sweatpants, a two pairs of track pants, a pair of tear-aways, several pairs of shorts (jean shorts and gym shorts) and various styles of shirts, most in shades of dark blue. My favorite color is blue. Stupid I know. I live in a city, mostly blue, in an ocean, definitely blue, lit with lights, blue with few exceptions, and my favorite color is blue. But it isn't that kind of blue. It's that dark, sapphire, indigo, hour-from-midnight blue. And I love it.

I grab a low rise pair of flares and a blue tank top, then shuffle over to my drawers and pull out a pair of board shorts and a top. I change quickly then slide my feet into my Adidas flip flops and walk back out into the lounge

**A/N: Right. So. There you have it. Chapter one of many in this installment alone. As I mentioned this series will run at least four stories, possibly more. But it will also take time. I want to say that I have the entirety of this first installment, _Dawning_, completely written out but its only about half typed and this first chapter is the only one that's been edited. So. For those of you who may be wondering, yes the old woman from the prologue is a character in the story. But I'm not going to tell you which one. She may be one of the main four or she may just be a minor character. But she will be mentioned in this …. I'm just gonna call this a mini series and _Dawning_ is chapter one. I know who she is, but I want to see if anyone else can figure it out. With each prologue and epilogue you'll get more clues and if no one's figured it out by the epilogue of the fourth episode THEN and only then will I tell you. If you have a guess post it in a review and be sure to leave an email address so I can get back to you if you're right. I will then announce it in the Author's Note of the next chapter I post. If you don't hear back from me… you were wrong. And Chibi and Bann, if you're reading this, and I know at some point you both will, you guys don't get to guess because I'm going to tell you so I can bounce ideas off you. Going back to the subject of reviews… I want them. Please. And I do welcome constructive criticism as I'm not so vain as to think my writing is perfect. If you want to flame me, go right ahead, but don't expect me to respond in any way, shape, form or fashion. I think that's it for now so until next chapter,**

**This is Nimeria, over and OUT!**


	2. Breakfast

**Disclaimer: **Not mine. Wish it was, but its not. Except for the stuff you don't recognize, i.e. the plot and the original characters which I won't name because there's just so many and you haven't even met all of them yet. But that's not the point. The point is that I do not own Stargate Atlantis, its places, people, or things.

**A/N: **Right. So. Here is chapter two. What can I say about this chapter? Umm… I like it. It got harder than it had been previously because suddenly I have characters from the actually show that I didn't invent so it's harder for me to guess how they'll react. But I think I did a pretty good job. Many thanks to Bann for the editing and to Chibi for… well being Chibi. And by this I mean the continuous "write more so I can read more because this is good and I like having a say in what happens" speech I got whenever she managed to get to the end of what I had done. So now… onward.

**Breakfast**

Rayne and Del are waiting and together the three of us walk into the transporter. Rayne taps a location close to the mess and the doors slide shut. When they open again we step out into a hallway that was 3 levels down and a half-hour walk from our tower. 

We walk through the twists and turns that comprise the hallway maze of Atlantis to the mess. The hallways are horribly confusing and Rayne and I usually spend the first week after new personnel are brought down in Del's lab during our free time. Watching through the security camera feed as the newbie's attempts to get themselves un-lost only serves to get them more so. But those of us who grew up here could probably walk the hallways blind and still find our way around.

The mess doors are closed when we get there because the cooks are hard at work cooking breakfast. And I use the term cooking very lightly. The mess is always open, there is always hot coffee and some kind of food in there for the night shift or what not, but when the cooks are 'cooking' the doors are closed. Not that it matters, the cooks have taken a liking to the three of us and will make us stuff whenever we stop by.

Del opens the doors and the three of us walk through the mess and into the chaos that is the mess kitchen. I spot a frazzled middle-aged woman with curly strawberry blonde hair yelling at a younger woman and pointing at some random thing further on into the kitchen.

This is Annie Janelin or AJ as she prefers to be called. AJ is head cook and is kind of like a doting grandmother to the kids in Atlantis. She always gives us food and trying her latest dessert recipes on us. She's like that with my dad, too. Her reasoning being that he's still a kid himself, which is kind of true.

"Morning AJ." I call to her as soon as she stops yelling at the poor girl. AJ turns to look at me and I catch the irritated gleam in her light green eyes before she recognizes me.

"Ashlei. G'day honey." She's Australian originally. "Up a tad earlay aren't ya?"

"Just a tad. Is it OK if we eat?"

"Course. Megan, Josh," she called to two of the other cooks. "Can you get some food up here for these ankle-biters?" the two cooks called back affirmative and AJ turned back to us. "The three of ya jus' sit on down over there and ya'll get ya food in a sec."

"We don't mean to be a problem. We can wait." Rayne doesn't like to impose on anybody, but the cooking staff in particular for some reason.

"Ah. No worries. Those two are already done doing their chores anyhow. Now jus' go sit."

We sat, and sure enough Megan and Josh brought out breakfast.

"Thank you." Rayne said as we accepted our food from them.

"Anything to get out of there for a minute. Bye." Then the two of them were gone, back into the kitchen. I glanced down at the food on the tray.

Scrambled eggs, toast, mini waffles, and bacon, all courtesy of the still docked Daedalus. I know my parents like it when the Daedalus brings Earth food even though we haven't actually needed it for years, most everyone who came from Earth does. Those of us who grew up here are used to the food, though, and it's not such a big deal for us. I will admit to having a bit of a weakness for chocolate, but I think all of us suffer from that particular affliction.

"Yum." And that was the last we heard from Rayne for awhile. She has a one track mind when it comes to food. Eat first, talk later. Del and I looked at each other, and then looked at Rayne, who was so deeply involved in her food she didn't even notice, then looked back at each other and shrugged. It was something you got used to. The two of us dug into our food more calmly, but I had skipped dinner in favor of a soccer game on the south pier last night and I was starving, so it wasn't a whole lot calmer. At some point I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and turned my head to see Rodney headed for our table, tray of food in his hands. I swallowed quickly.

"Morning, Rodney." I greeted. It had been decided so long ago I wasn't even capable of remembering it that we'd just call the senior staff by name. Maybe it was because they were the parents of our closest friends, or maybe it was just because it sounded kind of stupid to hear anyone call Rodney, Mr. McKay. We didn't know but the decision had been made and we stuck to it, with the notable exception of just about everyone calling my dad, sir, of course. Del looked up at my greeting and even Rayne managed to pull away from her food for a moment.

"Morning, Dad." Del smiled.

"Morning." Rodney responded, smiling back at his daughter. He nudged her gently with his shoulder as he sat down besider her. Rodney may be a little emotionally distant in the mornings but he somehow always finds a way to let Del know he cares. "Rayne." She nodded at him before returning to her food, satisfied that she been polite enough. Rodney looked at me. "Morning, Mi-chi."

"Rod-ney!" I moaned. He smirked slightly and sat down next to Del and across from Rayne. He nudged his daughter gently with his shoulder as he sat down beside her. Rodney may be a little emotionally distant in the mornings but he somehow always finds a way to let Del know he cares.

I should probably explain the nickname. You see Rodney likes to call my dad 'Chia' because of the hair. Rodney also thinks I am a miniature version of my father, more so since I cut my hair boy cut short so I could just spike it up. Thus Rodney took to calling me 'Mini Chia' but that's a bit of a mouthful for a nick name so he shortened it to 'Mi-chi'. He knows I hate it and he really doesn't use it all that often. Before I have a chance to protest the latest use of the hated nickname someone else does it for me. Sort of.

"McKay." The familiar voice of my father cuts through the still mostly empty mess hall. "Not harassing my kid again are you?"

I see Rodney roll his eyes as he turns to glare at my dad. The one and only John Sheppard is walking toward us with the ever guard-dog-like Ronan Dex at his side, both of them carrying trays of food. Ronon sits next to Rayne.

"Rayne."

"Dad." She responds happily. She momentarily leans her head on his shoulder before she goes back to eating.

"Sheppard," Rodney starts, his tone that of a parent to an insufferable child, "I am not harassing your daughter. I never have harassed your daughter. Only a nutcase would. And if, for some reason, I go completely insane and **do**harass her, only a crazy person would ever admit it to anyone, much less you." He narrowed his eyes slightly at the amused look on my dad's face. "So why bother asking at all?" he snapped.

"Because you just said you'd have to be crazy to harass her in the first place. And if you'd have to be crazy to harass her and crazy to tell me you harassed her, then you'd tell me." My dad flashed Rodney a childish 'beat that' look and sat beside me. "Morning, sweetheart."

"Morning, Daddy." I replied, trying to hold back a laugh at the look on Rodney's face.

"Sheppard, that didn't—it didn't even make sense." He protests.

"Sure it did." My dad says.

"Didn't." Rodney snaps back. Del and I look at each other, the same thought likely going through both of our heads. _Here they go again. _We look at Ronon to see if he'll be any help and come up short. By now he is as deeply engrossed in his food as his daughter.

"Did." The grin on my dad's face tells me he knows what he's doing, and he is enjoying it.

"Didn't."

Del and I look at each other helplessly, and then go back to eating. There's nothing we can do to stop this, and Ronon won't until he's done eating. After about ten minutes of listening to my dad and Rodney go on like a couple of four-year-olds, help finally arrived in the form of a copper haired Athosian named Teyla. Gotta love Rayne's mom, she knows how to handle these two.

"Did."

"Doctor McKay, Colonel Sheppard." Teyla cuts in before Rodney can respond again, sounding like a mother speaking to her errant children. "As entertaining as I am **sure** the girls find this, perhaps it would be a better use of your time to eat." Very cool. She phrases it as a request but they wouldn't dare defy her. Rodney shot one last glare at my dad, who looked like a puppy who'd been scolded, then started eating.

"Yeah. Uh, sorry." My dad mumbles. I can tell he's not and from the look on her face, Teyla can too. She says nothing, but nods a greeting to all of us, offers a 'good morning, Ronon' to her husband, in return for which she only receives a grunt, to which she smiles fondly, and sits down on Rayne's other side.

"Good morning, Rayne." Teyla says after she hugs her daughter.

"Morning, mother." Rayne reciprocates both greeting and hug. By now, Rayne has finished eating and is elbowing me and shooting meaningful glances towards my dad. I get her point and discreetly motion for her to wait a second. I finished eating quickly and set my silverware down on the tray. Del finished awhile ago and is also waiting for me to make the first move here.

"Hey, dad?" he looks up, immediately attentive to me.

"Yeah, Ash?"

"You're – um—you're off today right?" Okay Ashlei, take it easy. Be careful. Don't rush it.

"Yeah." Oh. Too late. Wariness. Suspicion. Be careful, Ash. Tread lightly.

"Did you um – I mean are you – plans. Do you have plans?" Good. Sound unsure. Tentative. Let him think he has control here.

"Noo." Better. Still slightly wary, but curious. I suddenly notice that everyone else at the table is watching our exchange. Potentially helpful, potentially problematic.

"You think you could – um – maybe fly Del, Rayne and I over to the mainland?" Puppy face. "Please?"

Silence and a frown. I intensify my puppy gaze. He bites his lip and glances around the table. Wait. He looks back at me. Pout just a little more and…

Score! I see the second he breaks.

"Well, I guess if I stay it should be ok." I let my face light up with child-like glee and an ear to ear smile. His face softens slightly and I know any regrets he had about giving in are gone. My dad's a real softie where my brothers and I are concerned, but for me in particular it's really hard for him to say no. "Where exactly on the mainland did you have in mind and what are you planning on doing?" he sighs, resigned to his fate. My answer, however, will have him overjoyed.

"Well, we wanted to go to Breakers Beach and surf." Sure enough his face lights up.

"Okay" and he sounds a lot more enthusiastic now. "I have one thing I have to finish up before I tell your mother we're going, so meet you in the Jumper Bay in…" he pauses a moment and thinks "an hour?"

"That'll be great! Thanks, daddy!" After quickly clearing the trip with Rodney, Ronon, and Teyla, Del, Rayne and I stand up and start to go to give our now empty trays back to the kitchen staff.

"Hey Ash?" my dad calls after me as we leave.

"Yeah?"

"Were you planning on telling your brothers?" he has one of those looks on his face that tell me that even if I wasn't, I had better. I grinned at him.

"Headed back up there now." I hadn't actually planned on telling the boys but… they'd have known anyhow. You see my brothers and I share a telepathic link that Carson and Rodney believe is a result of having inherited not only my father's gene but also having it strengthened by being born here in the city.

I wave at my dad then walk out of the mess hall, speaking as I go. "Why don't you two go start loading up boards while I wake the guys."

Undisguised relief washes over Rayne and Del's faces. I don't blame them. My brothers are okay in the morning but their brothers are a pain in the butt and Rayne's little sister is a right devil anytime before noon. Even though I was only going up there to get my brothers, there was a good chance I would run into at least one of the others because it was now 9:15 and they would have all started getting up.

"That sounds great, Ashlei." Rayne replies over her shoulder; she and Del are already halfway down the hall leading to the Jumper Bay.

"Lovely." I muttered under my breath, before making my way through the hallways now full of people to the transporter and then up to Central.

The doors swooshed open and I was greeted by the sight of a now dressed Aaron lounging on one of the couches. His door, my door, Rayne's door and the doors at 11 and 3 o'clock, the rooms belonging to Rayne and Del's little brothers, were open, but the remaining five were closed, their occupants either still asleep or changing.

"Morning, Aaron." I sing-song as I skip over to him. He lifts his feet up off the couch and then set them back down in my lap once I'd sat. He regarded me quietly for a minute with emerald eyes.

"Ash, you ok?" I blink in surprise at his question. "You were kind of freaking out earlier. Woke me up." Aaron offers in explanation. "Took me awhile to get out of bed and all but…" he trails off.

"Fine, Aaron. I'm fine. Nothing to worry about." and there really wasn't. More than once in the last few years something rather like what had happened this morning had happened. It had never led to anything serious. I saw him frown and then felt a soft tingling pressure in my mind as he looked at my memory of the latest incident. He pulled back out and nodded in acceptance of my assessment. His face lightened and his eyes cleared as his concern faded.

"So we're going surfing then?"

"Yep. Where's Alan?" I inquire. Alan is my younger brother, the third triplet.

"Changing. He should be out in a bit. Just woke up."

"I'll bet." Silence filled the room, but it was a comfortable silence. After awhile one of the doors opened and Aaron and I turned to see a boy with light blue eyes and ash blonde hair walking toward the transporter. He nodded at us on his way by from his room at 10 o'clock.

Meet Caleb, 19-year-old son of Rodney McKay. Del's older brother. Not much of a morning person. Caleb's the oldest person up here though. He can be kind of cold to people he either doesn't know or doesn't like and to just about anyone in the mornings, but we'd normally invite him to come with us all the same. But Caleb is way into genetics and today Carson had promised to explain how he created the Wraith retrovirus and how it works, so Caleb isn't going anywhere but Carson's lab.

"Oh, hey Ashlei?" and I turn to see Caleb half in and half out of the transporter, looking at me. I smile inwardly, knowing exactly what he wants.

"Yeah, she slept." Caleb nods his head in thanks and then steps fully into the transporter and activates it.

Okay so maybe I exaggerated a bit. Caleb **is** rather cold in the morning. To **most** people. But Del? Yeah Caleb has a serious older brother complex. He's extremely protective. Caleb also knows that I've made it my self-imposed duty to keep an eye on the overzealous Del, so he's not so cold to me and my brothers out of appreciation.

**A/N: **So that's it for now. No promises what so ever on when the next chapter will be up. Depends on when I get time and how depressed I am by school. Oh. But the most important factor… you. And your reviews. Let me know how you feel. Like it and enjoy seeing the updates but notice a few things that you don't like? Love it and have it saved to your favorites waiting in agony for more and wouldn't change a thing? Hate it and will never read another word of it? Hate it but will continue reading anyway just so you can complain? Tell me. I want to know. So just send the reviews in whether they be good, bad, or otherwise. The button's just right there and you just KNOW you want to push it.

'Til next time,

Nimeria, over and Out!


	3. Loading Up and Heading Out

**Disclaimer: **Not mine. Wish it was, but its not. Except for the stuff you don't recognize, i.e. the plot and the original characters which I won't name because there's just so many and you haven't even met all of them yet. But that's not the point. The point is that I do not own Stargate Atlantis, its places, people, or things.

**A/N: **Thanks again to my dearest Bann and Chibi. As I'm writing this, I have yet to even post the first chapter of this story, so I have no clue if anyone has reviewed. If you have I want to say thank you, it means a lot. And if no one has, well…. Thanks to the readers for reading it. And if no one's reading it… I guess I'm talking to myself. Oh well.

As for this chapter, Number Three… what to say… it is, just like the previous two, continuing lead up to the revelation of the actual plot. Which will be in the next chapter. Which will be up… whenever I find the time. So go on and read this lovely new chapter created by me, for you.

**P.S.: **Thank Electric Spyro, I hope I spelled that right, for the fairly quick update. We had a deal. She won. Or did I win? It's kind of confusing. Anyway, this is up because of her. I try to post quickly but sometimes it takes longer than I like. She made me make time to do this.

**Loading Up and Heading Out**

Another door swooshes open and I look back in the general direction of my room at the one on the left, 9 o'clock. I am greeted with a mirror image of my brother resting his feet in my lap, with one subtle difference.

Meet Alan, who is younger than me by about two minutes. It's almost impossible to tell him from Aaron. Except for that one little difference. Aaron and Alan have the same spiked (lots of hair gel goes into that believe me) brown hair, are the same height, have the same nose and ears, have the same taste in clothes and shoes. They even talk the same. The one deciding factor between the two? Their eyes. Aaron's are a dark emerald, Alan's are a light, sea green.

"Well, it's about time, Alan." From the exasperation in his voice, Aaron's probably been waiting for awhile. Alan just shrugs a response. Aaron lets out an "ugh" of disgust at Alan's blasé attitude and lifts his feet off me to stand up. "Apparently we're going surfing so go grab some shorts and then we'll grab some on-the-go food on our way to the Jumper Bay."

"And I'll meet you down there." I add. Alan groans and turns back to his room. Aaron and I just shake our heads helplessly. "See ya." I tell him as I move towards the transporter. I activate it and end up in a different hallway than the one before. This one is closer to the Jumper Bay. I make my way through the hallways and just as I'm about to activate the doors to the Bay someone else does. Ah. Short hair in a color identical to that on the heads of my brothers.

"Hey, Mom."

"Hello, Ashlei. I was just looking for your father."

"Well, he ought to be along soon. He's flying us to the mainland." Her face shows surprise and slight consternation.

"Oh, is he now?" From the way she says it I realize why Mom is looking for him.

"He's probably in his office. He said he had something he had to take care of before we left, and since he didn't look at all happy about it I assume it is paperwork." As helpful as that sentence may sound, it really isn't.

"Hmm. You wouldn't happen to know where his office is this week would you?" I shake my head.

"I really haven't the faintest, Mom." My mother sighs.

"I didn't think so, but it never hurts to ask. Well, have a fun time darling." She smiles as she hugs me.

"I will, Mom." I hug her back and she leaves. You see my dad moves his office constantly. His theory being that if people can't find it, then they can't leave paperwork in it. It works, too, for the most part. Some people have wised up though and just hand the paperwork directly to him. I let out a soft laugh at my father's antics and think the door open. Or at least I try to.

Nothing. Again. I frown and use the panel. Door swishes open. Lights go out. Lovely. And then I hear the voice again.

"_Lady. Please. Come speak to me. You must. It is the only chance we have."_

I spin, searching for the speaker. I find nothing and no one.

"Who are you? Where are you?" I demand of the voice.

"_Lady, please." _The voice seems to be pleading desperately with me as the lights come back on.

"Ashlei?" The voice comes from behind me and I jump and attempt to spin around so fast I nearly fall over. Standing behind me is a young boy of about 10. He has black hair and dark, liquid brown eyes. His hair covers his ears and is pushed out of his eyes off to one side. I relax as recognition sets in.

"Hey, Jet." Relief floods my voice.

"You alright? Why were you standing around in the dark?" he questions, glancing around the room in confusion.

"I'm fine! I couldn't get the lights back on." Jet raises an eyebrow at my second statement.

"**You **couldn't get the lights back on? **You**? Ashlei Sheppard is having trouble with the lights?" Oh, that devil. He's mocking me now.

"Just shut up, Jet! Now's not the time!"

"No?" he smirks. He's smirking at me.

"Don't mess with me Jet." I growl.

"Okay, okay." He backs up, his hands raised in surrender. "Chill. I was just messin'. Sheesh!" I stare at him for a moment. 'Chill'? 'Messin''? 'Sheesh'? Who has Jet been talking to? But I have more important things on my mind.

"Whatever. Listen, Jet, before you walked in here, did you hear anyone?" He shakes his head. "Did you see anyone leave?"

"Huh-uh." I frown. Jet looks around to see if anyone else is here before stepping towards me. "Ashlei, are you okay? You're acting kinda off."

"No I'm – I'm fine. I take it Alan and Aaron told you about the trip to the mainland?"

"Yep."

"Are you coming with us, then?"

"Naturally."

"Come on then. Let's help Del and Rayne load up."

"Kay." I let Jet lead me out of the little room. I glance around one last time and follow him into the Jumper Bay.

I guess I forgot to introduce Jet. He's Rayne's younger brother. He's 10 and he can be a right pain. But then I've heard most 10-year-olds are like that. Jet likes to hang around with the youngest of the marines. You'd think it'd be a bit of a problem for them always having him hanging around, but they've grown so used to it that they worry when they haven't seen him in awhile. They also know that Jet is going to think that whatever they do is the height of cool so, in an effort to be a good influence on the boy and not have Teyla and Ronon after them, they behave extremely well. Most of the time. Since it keeps the whole group of them out of trouble, no one really has a problem with it.

Upon entering the vast room, I am met with the rather comical sight of Del attempting to stand up a surfboard in the Jumper, while Rayne tries to balance two others and Jet jumps around the two of them in a way only a hyperactive 10-year-old can. I have to giggle softly at the sight, but manage to stop as I walk over to them.

"Del, will you please just lay it on the bench. It'll be fine." Rayne sounds really exasperated and I get the feeling they've been having this conversation for awhile.

"I know it will. But we may need to sit on the bench, and I **can** do this. It's just a matter of finding the perfect point at which the tip of the board can be perfectly balanced along its axis, thereby causing –" I tune her out at that point. Del has a habit of explaining things in an entirely scientific way that none of the rest of us can understand. We're all used to it, but right now Rayne looks like she's about to scream so I guess I'll help her out. "And the –"

"Del!" I bark. "Enough!" Del looks at me surprised and I have to laugh inwardly as I realize she only just noticed my presence. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch the grateful look Rayne sends my way.

"When did you get here?" and, somehow, she manages to make it sound like I personally insulted her by not announcing my arrival.

"Right after Jet did." Del's eyes flick momentarily to Jet before resettling on me, and at that point it's all I can do not to laugh out loud. She hadn't noticed his arrival either.

"Oh. Right. Of course." Entirely unconvincing isn't it?

"Now, while I'm sure you can stand that board up so that it won't fall over, I'm also sure that we're leaving in…" here I glance at my watch, it's ten. "Oh, about fifteen minutes. So if we could please just load the boards?" Del mutters something unintelligible under her breath, but lays the board on the bench all the same. Rayne hands over first one then the other of the two boards she's been balancing, while I head towards the storage room at the back of the dock.

All the docks have a storage room in the back, which is useful because it allows the teams to put the stuff that they use on occasion nearby so that they don't have to run it up from the lab or wherever every single time they need it. This being Jumper One, the storage room contains a bunch of Rodney's science thingies and a ton of other things that get used very rarely. These being things like a gurney, a portable defibrillator incase the one in the Jumper breaks, Hazmat suits, and the various odd sports equipment for the mainland, including the surfboards.

I grab two of the six remaining boards and hand them to Rayne, who is standing behind me. Rayne gives them to Del and then looks back at me.

"You think we'll need the other two?" It's a good question. We had loaded our three first, although Del may or may not use hers, and then my brothers' two, but whether we'd need my dad's and the three spares, these being the ones used by Teyla, Ronon, and Rodney when my dad manages to convince them to surf, was uncertain.

"Well," I said, dragging the word out as I thought. "My dad did seem pretty excited to go, so I guess we load his." Rayne waits patiently as I continue on in my thoughtful tone "And we may as well bring the other three, because I don't know who else my dad may bring along." It isn't an overly decisive conclusion but it is enough for Rayne. She quickly takes hold of two of the spares while Jet grabs the other and they carry them over to Del. I reverently and gently pick up my dad's board. Being very careful, I bring it out to Del who loads it with equal care.

Let me explain. My dad, he loves that board. Probably as much as he loves the Jumper, which he has affectionately named Wynona. The explanation for which involves an Earth TV show called _Farscape _and the tact that while technically he should have given the name to his 9 mil, he was fonder of the Jumper as it was closer to the show's Wynona both in that it never failed him and technology level, anyway. I don't get it but every time he explains it Rodney starts snickering.

Anyway, my dad loves that board and it'd close to break his heart if any damage came to it. As a result we're always very careful with it because, 1. my dad is a pretty cool guy and we'd hate to do that to him and 2. it's probably not a good sign to outsiders if the Military CO is sulking because his surfboard got broken.

Rayne and I help Del strap the boards down. Then there is a faint pause as we all looked at each other for a split second.

"Shotgun!" all four of us yell at once. Chaos ensues as we dash for the coveted chair. I manage to slide into the chair not a moment too soon. Rayne sits on me and Del and Jet groan. Rayne gets up and with a faint glare sits in the seat behind me. However, depending on which of the adults came she might not be able to stay there. The rules of seating are simple. 1. My dad drives, unless he says someone else can do it, which, believe me, with the way Rodney drives and the fact that Del and I are still pretty young to be driving the things and my brothers don't even show an interest in flying, happens rarely. 2. Shotgun is first come, first serve. Period. No dibs, no exceptions. 3. The remaining two front seats are given to the oldest two people who want them.

Del snags the chair behind the pilot's seat and Jet steps towards the pilot's seat before thinking better of it and sitting on the floor

"So, are the other 2/3 of the Trouble Triplets coming then?" Del's tone is innocent enough when she asks but the use of the old nickname for my brothers and I and the faint gleam in her eyes is anything but. I debate for a minute and decide that it'll be more fun not to rise to the bait.

"Yes. Aaron and Alan are coming. They were going to grab a bite to eat before they came here, though.

"Mmm. Did you tell them when we were leaving?"

"Umm…" whoops. "Well…"

"That's a no isn't it?" She sounds more amused than annoyed.

"Yeah." I admit guiltily.

"Should someone go tell them?" Rayne asks with concern.

"No need. We're here." Rayne, Del and Jet start slightly at the unexpected sound of my older brother's voice. I knew it was coming though. Because of the telepathic link we find it hard to sneak up on each other. I spin my chair to face the rear of the Jumper and my two brothers standing in the doorway. Aaron smiles kindly at Rayne. "Thank you for worrying though." Behind him Alan rolls his eyes.

'(Gag.)' I hear his irritated voice drift over my mind and have to hide a smile quickly before Aaron notices.

'(Now, Alan. Be nice. He doesn't do that to you.)' I reprimand, only half serious.

'(I'm not drooling over some girl. Not that Rayne isn't cool and all but… ick. I mean she's your friend. Always has been. She's like a sister. She and Del both and that's just wrong.)'

'(Alan, maybe Aaron doesn't see her that way. After all, he didn't hang out with us girls as much as you did when we were younger.)'

'(Not as much!? Ash, the three of us have been nearly inseparable since birth! If he didn't hang out with us it was because he was sick or grounded and when one of us gets sick or grounded the other two do, too.)'

'(Look, all I'm saying is that Aaron sees some things different than you see them and different than I see them also. Maybe this is one of those things. Now shut up before he hears us.)'

Alan rolls his eyes and makes a face at me where Aaron can't see. I just shoot him a warning glare and tune back in the conversation my friends are having with my more mature brother.

"It's a good point and all, but I still think we're old enough **now." **Del argues, putting emphasis on the last word. "By Earth standards we're almost out of high school. Earth kids have cars and go all over the place on their own by now." Aaron shakes his head calmly.

"Clearly **they** don't think we are. And in case you haven't noticed, we aren't on Earth. We live in considerable more danger than most Earth kids do. I for one think they are justified in this."

Even without hearing the beginning of the debate, I know what they are arguing about. It's the same thing we always argue about before a trip to the mainland. We aren't allowed to be alone while we are there and if we spend the night we aren't allowed to leave alone. No exceptions, no ifs, ands, or buts. The debate was whether this is because it actually isn't safe for us and we really aren't old enough, or if our parents are just being over protective.

"Aaron." Del sighs, irritation already beginning to edge into her voice. "**They** didn't even want to let us all move up to the tower. The **only** reason we got to go is because we would have gone anyway."

"Del is right, Aaron. They have shown their tendency to be overprotective before." Rayne agrees.

"Thank you!" and Del's hands go palm up in Rayne's direction, as if trying to force Aaron's attention toward her. Honestly though? It would have been harder to get his attention away from her.

"However," Rayne moderates, shooting a warning glance at Del to keep her from flipping out. "We do not know that this is one of those times. Nor" she shoots the same glance at Aaron, "do we know that it isn't. Until we manage to discern which it is, we should honor the rules they have lain down. If it is truly for our safety, then we benefit, if it is merely overprotection, then they stay happy and we **still** benefit." Rayne explains. Silence ensues as neither Aaron nor Del have anything left to argue their points with.

"Wow, Rayne." I half-laughed. "I guess those classes with my mother aren't so pointless and useless after all." Rayne's look clearly said I-told-ya-so, but I ignored it as I continued. "It takes real skill to get the two of them," I nodded toward Del and Aaron "to stop arguing without physical interference." From the floor Jet laughs too loud as ten-year-olds often do, Alan snorts in the doorway and Rayne grins shyly. She's decided she wants to be a negotiator and is beginning to narrow down her classes to those that have a direct impact on that profession. Right now what that means is all the regular senior level high school classes on an Earth based scale and twice a week she meets with my mother for classes, when there isn't some crisis that demands Mom's attention.

"Yeah." She admits softly, a faint blush tinge her dark cheeks. It fades as quickly as it had come and is replaced with a smug smirk. "Well, I did tell you didn't I?"

I choose not to answer and instead glance at Aaron to see his reaction, only to find that he hasn't even noticed because he and Del are trying to kill each other with their eyes. I sigh inwardly. Rayne and I share an 'It's-hopeless' look.

At some point in our childhood, Aaron had managed to get on Del's bad side. No one remembers why or how, just that he did. Del had, of course, gotten even but it has escalated over time to the point where they really don't care for each other much now.

I was about to say something to try to divert their attention when my dad, Ronon, Teyla, and (amazingly) Rodney walked into the Jumper. My dad shot one of his trademark cocky flyboy grins, as Rodney calls them, towards me and sat in the pilot's seat.

"We ready to go?"

"Yep." I replied.

"Up, Del." Rodney commands, jerking with his thumb for her to vacate her seat, which she does with a sigh.

"You, too, Rayne." Ronon says in his low voice. Rayne follows Del quietly into the back of the Jumper. Ronon motions Teyla towards one seat while Rodney sits in the other. Jet gets up off the floor and follows Alan and Aaron into the back; the three of them wait until Ronon chooses a spot before sitting. Alan, poor guy, gets stuck with the floor.

My dad closes the rear hatch and powers up the Jumper. Suddenly, I remember my encounter with my mother.

"Dad, did mom find you?" he glances momentarily away from the forward view screen to give me a nod.

"Yeah she did." He returns his attention to getting the Jumper up and out of the bay.

"Don't worry, kid." Ronon says gruffly. "We wouldn't have let him leave without turning in those reports. It's easier on all of us." I knew what he meant. I frown slightly as I recall what had happened after my encounter with my mother. But then we were out of the bay and over the city and the view and the excitement of flying push it from my mind. In retrospect I realize that probably wasn't a good thing, but as they say, hindsight is always 20/20.

**A/N: **That's it then. Please leave reviews because you know I love them.

Until next time,

Nimeria over and OUT!


	4. Glitch

**Disclaimer: **Not mine. Wish it was, but its not. Except for the stuff you don't recognize, i.e. the plot and the original characters which I won't name because there's just so many and you haven't even met all of them yet. But that's not the point. The point is that I do not own Stargate Atlantis, its places, people, or things.

**A/N: **HI! waves So. Not much I can say about this chapter except… hey the plot. There it is. Cool. Right so. This is where the plot starts. No idea now many chapters it'll go through but I'll be sure to let you know.

**Thank you:** To Bann and Chibi and all my other friends who read the little parts of this just so I would leave them alone. Also to my reviewers. You make my day.

Most importantly to my one constant reviewer, Akima Doll. Thanks. It really means a lot. gives virtual candy of choice

And now on with the story.

**Glitch**

It was five in the afternoon when we got the call. We'd flown to the village for lunch and then back to the beach. Del and my brothers were out on the waves. Rayne was giving Jet lessons on the spare board with help from my dad. They weren't actually the water right now, so Teyla and Ronon had momentarily given up their constant vigil over their children and gone for a walk.

Rodney was asleep on a towel a few feet down the beach from me. The rest of SGA-1 had laughed slightly at how someone who'd been complaining about the sun, the heat and the sand as much as Rodney had been, could possibly fall asleep on a beach towel, but they hadn't woken him up. To be honest, I think all of his complaining had just been to keep up appearances. Rodney is more relaxed now than he was even just a few years ago. He's certainly tanner and fitter. Although, this he blames on my dad dragging him out of his lab as often as possible, and on Ronon insisting that Rodney run with him once a week and learn at least some self-defense. After almost 25 years in the Pegasus Galaxy, Rodney has changed from what I'm told he used to be like. All the evidence of this change is right there, asleep on a towel on the mainland in the late afternoon sun.

Me? Well, I'm sprawled on my own towel, soaking up the rays and just enjoying watching my friends and family. All the surfing I'd done earlier had worn me out and the intoxicating combination of the sunshine and the sound of waves lapping at the shore and the smell of salt water had lulled me into a half-asleep daze. So it's really no surprise that I almost didn't hear the radio hail. Almost. I sighed and rolled over with a groan, digging through my pile of clothes for the radio earpiece that had become standard issue for anyone over the age of 15. This I assumed was in case of emergencies and important announcements. Finally, I found it in the bottom of my pocket.

"Uhn. Hello?" I managed to get out as I slipped the earpiece into my ear and activated it.

"Colonel Sheppard?" I recognized Lt. Colonel Lorne's voice.

"Wrong Sheppard, Marcus." I still sounded half-asleep and likely that's how he knew it was me when he realized it wasn't Dad. My brothers, well, they're a real pain to try to wake up, but they go from asleep the awake and cranky as hell in about ten seconds, unless, of course, they wake up of their own free will.

"Sorry, Ashlei. It's a little hectic over here, which is actually why I'm bothering your father on his day off. Is he nearby? Because I need to talk to him." He sounded so stressed that I decided not to play around.

"Yeah, sure. Just a second." I deactivated the radio and pulled it out of my ear. "Hey Dad!" I yelled. "Dad!" I tried again when he didn't seem to hear me the first time. "Dad!!" His head snapped up from where he was telling Jet something.

"What?!" he called back.

"Marcus needs to talk to you. I think that it's important." I paused as I remembered the stressed tone of his voice, before adding, "Really important." My dad didn't hesitate. He came sprinting up the slope of the beach. He skidded to a halt beside me and snatched the now reactivated radio out of my hand.

"Lorne?" I winced at the accusatory tone in Daddy's voice. My dad has a talent for asking exactly what he wants just by saying a person's name and, unfortunately, it usually comes out in that tone. I heard indistinct words as Lorne talked as quickly as possible. "What?!" Dad demanded in disbelief. His face was paling. Lorne's voice repeated the same pattern of indiscernible sounds. My dad was silent for a minute, then I saw his posture and look shift from fun and easy to full military. "We're on our way." He barked into the earpiece. He turned it off and tossed it to me. "McKay!" he yelled, walking over to where Rodney was sleeping. "McKay!"

"What? What?" Rodney yelped as he woke up.

"We have to go. **Now! **Kids! Let's move!" My dad stalked over to his stuff and quickly threw his shirt and cargoes on over the suit before throwing his stuff in his bag. Ronon and Teyla came dashing back up the path they'd been walking on.

"Sheppard, what are you yelling about?" Ronon snapped. I saw Rayne and Jet throwing their things together as quickly as they could. Del and my brothers, on the other hand, still hadn't heard my dad. I waited to hear what he would say to Ronon, and when I did, I wished I hadn't.

"The city is crashing."

"The city is WHAT?!" Rodney shrieked.

"Crashing. Power systems have shut down, computers have gone haywire. Crashing. We have to go." He turned his head toward the water and was about to yell for them again.

"I got 'em, Dad." I told him. He looked at me for a moment and nodded.

'(Alan, Aaron, get in here **now. **We have to go.)'

'(What? Why?)' I wasn't real sure which one had asked, but I didn't have time to find out. **We** didn't have time.

'(I'll explain on the way. Get Del and get in here.)' I saw Aaron move toward the beach. Alan yelled something to Del and then the two of them started back towards the shore. I dug through my stuff until I found my pants. I slipped them on over my suit bottom and tugged my shirt on. Ronon and Teyla helped their children get the four surfboards on shore loaded. My dad had separated my brothers' clothes out from the pile and was packing up the towels. I tossed him mine and Del's (she and my brothers were just going to have to go back wet) when he looked over at me. Rodney was trying to get better specifics out of Marcus over the radio.

I handed Del her clothes and an apologetic look when she got to me. She didn't say anything just put them on and then followed me to the Jumper. Rayne and I strapped down the last three boards. We kids sat in the back as my dad activated the Jumper's systems and we took off.

I'll be honest, the speed my dad was pushing the jumper to in order to get us back wasn't one I would willingly be flying at myself, and I inherited my dad's love for speed. From the cockpit I could hear Rodney barking orders to his team over the radio. But even though we managed to cut the trip in half, my brothers weren't willing to wait until we got back to find out what was going on.

'(Ash? What's wrong with the city?)' Aaron-it had to be Aaron-asked. Alan couldn't possibly sound that freaked and that calm at the same time because when Alan freaks, he really freaks.

'(It's crashing. According to dad, quote 'Power systems have shut down, computers have gone haywire. Crashing.' unquote.)'

'(This is bad. Really, really bad.)' There, you see? Alan freaks and there is no calm involved.

'(Alan, relax.)' Aaron ordered, using his 'I'm-the-oldest-so-do-as-I-say voice. '(We'll get back and then they will take care of it. We've got nothing to worry about.)' I doubted this but Alan had actually relaxed somewhat and I didn't want to freak him out again. We jolted slightly as my dad landed the Jumper in the bay after only just barely managing to get through the roof. '(Correction. We** are **back.)'

SGA-1, because that's what they were acting like now, were up and out the rear hatch in an instant. We followed. Dad noticed.

"You kids stay here." He ordered as he and the others three sprinted across the bay to the door.

"But—" I protested.

"No buts, Ashlei. Stay here." He'd shifted into full military mode and there was no arguing with him now. But by nature I had to try.

"I wanna help!" Dad stopped dead and spun to face me.

"You really want to help?" I nodded enthusiastically, having not heard the sarcastic and annoyed tone of his voice. "Then you can either stay here or you can go back to the tower!" I opened my mouth to protest, but he was already out the bay doors. I growled faintly in frustration before stomping back to where Alan and Aaron had been filling Del, Rayne and Jet in on the situation.

"They won't let me help." I hate to admit it but I was actually whining like a five-year-old being denied candy.

"Ash, you had to know they wouldn't." I made a face at Del. "We have more important things to worry about. Not to mention that what we actually know is a far cry compared to everything that's actually happened."

"Del," I snap in ever growing irritation. "Perhaps I wasn't clear enough. Allow me to restate my earlier statement. They won't let **us** help!"

"Since when has what they will and will not let us do stopped you?" My irritation faded slightly as I grinned sheepishly. She had a point.

"How are we supposed to do anything? They don't want us to help and therefore are unlikely to tell us any information about the ongoing situation." Rayne asked.

The silence lasted for a minute before Del caught my eye, glanced meaningfully towards the three boys and then the door. I got the gist and glared pointedly at my brothers. They didn't get it.

"What?" Aaron demanded. Alan shifted from foot to foot nervously.

"Can't have you three around when I tell Ash and Rayne this lovely little bit of info." Del informed them. I looked at my brothers.

"Can you two take Jet back to the tower? Ah." I snapped the last quickly to cut off their protests. "There likely isn't anyone up there except the Beckett twins and the poor kids are probably terrified. Reassure them and if you run into Winter or Sean get them to go, too." There was complete silence. "Please." I added with a pleading look. They sighed resignedly.

"Fine. Come on Jet." Aaron grumbled. His reluctance was obvious but this was about more than keeping secrets. Terry and Trish Beckett were only seven. Winter Dex was twelve and Sean Hunt was nine. Somebody needed to take care of them. Jet looked from Aaron to Rayne and back again. He knew he should go, but he didn't want to leave Rayne anymore than Alan and Aaron wanted to leave me. Rayne knelt by him.

"Go, Jet. I'll be fine. I've got Ashlei and she knows her way around better than half the adults. Not to mention Del who knows more about the city than just about anyone save the senior staff. Go. Aaron and Alan will take care of you. Okay?" Jet nodded. "If you do see Winter, tell her I said to go with you. Tell her I said whatever you think will make her go with you. You can do that for me can't you?" Jet nodded again before moving to hang onto Aaron's hand.

"You guys may want to get going before the doors stop opening completely." The three boys smiled nervously, and then turned and head off across the bay and then down the hallway outside. We waited until we were sure they had gone. Then Rayne and I turned to face Del.

"So what's the plan, Del?"

"Well," she said as she pulled out her earpiece, "Caleb's been here the whole time right?"

"Yes. As I recall Carson was going to explain the retrovirus to him. He was extremely excited."

"Right. So that means he was here when stuff started going wonky. Sorry, one of Brit's words." She added when I gave her a confused look. Britney was another of our friends. She was actually Marcus's daughter. She had an odd vocabulary but I somehow always managed to figure out what she was getting at. Apparently, her words and phrases were beginning to rub off on Del.

"So Caleb is bound to know what's going on."

"Exactly." Del concluded happily, fiddling with the earpiece all the while.

"But, he isn't going to tell us anything over the radio." I groaned as realize it wasn't going to be that easy. "It'll get us all in trouble. I don't know about you two, but, personally, I'd really rather not have to be the ones fighting the system to get through the doors. Especially since we don't even know where he is."

"Ashlei is correct, Del. Much as Caleb may be willing to tell you—"

"And we don't even know if he is."

"He would not risk telling us anything where someone is bound to overhear."

"Yes. Yes. Yes. Excellent points. I have two more for you. One. Caleb will help us, if only because he knows we're going to try to help anyhow and we're better off, not to mention far safer, if we know what's going on. Two. As a contingency, Caleb and I always switch our radios over to a different frequency during crises so that we can talk, or at least that's what **he **says. In all honesty I think it's more for him to keep an eye on me, or an ear as it were. Anyhow, by now he'll have switched his and is probably waiting for me to let him know I'm alright." Del smiled in her 'you-see-I-**do**-know-what-I'm-doing' way. Rayne didn't say anything, just nodded.

"Oh." I would have been better off just nodding like Rayne. As it was I just sounded dumb.

"Switch your radios over to channel seven." We did so quickly, and Del tapped hers to activate it. "Caleb, this is Del. Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear." his response was almost instantaneous. "It's about damn time, too. Where are you?"

"Jumper bay, trying to figure out what we're gonna do. You?"

"Power room with Carson. Radek was down here trying to figure the problem out when the power spiked and he got zapped. Who's with you?"

"Ashlei and Rayne, naturally. Dad's on his way down there. Caleb, what happened?"

"God. Where do you want me to start? Everything was weird for awhile before anything serious actually started to happen."

"Oh, wonderful. Just start at the beginning. When things first went weird."

"Well, I was down in Carson's lab. He was just about to start showing me the sequencing for the retrovirus. It was right around one o'clock. Then the power went out. We were just about to call Radek and see what was up when they came back, so we decided to just let it go. It happened again an hour later and then again a half-hour after that.

"Carson called Radek who said he didn't know what was wrong but he thought it might be a power system thing and he was running diagnostics. Elizabeth and Lorne joined the conversation then and there was a small debate as to whether or not Dad needed to be called back from the mainland. Eventually, they agreed that it was only a miner problem, that Dad needed the break, and that if it got really serious they'd call him back then.

"So everyone went back to what they'd been doing and for awhile it seemed like Radek had managed to fix the problem. Then, right around four o'clock, everything went wrong. Lights went our and this time they didn't come back on. The internal comm system was sending through all kinds of nonsense and the infirmary data base crashed."

"Wait, wait, wait." Del interrupted her brother. "Why the heck didn't they call dad back then?"

"They tried. The signal wasn't going through. We still don't know why it finally did, or why the radios are working now. Anyway, Carson and I went to find Radek since the radios weren't working. It was rather weird actually. In some of the hallways the lights were flashing. The power systems were going crazy and every door got harder for Carson to open.

"Right around four thirty all the computers in the city started going nuts. They were scrolling some kind of text or something that no one can read. The internal comms finally stopped working altogether. Then everything went dark. The radios finally buzzed back to life and we all heard Lorne finally get through to you. Right as you were coming in, the power spiked. Carson and I raced here and then—" Caleb's voice cut off suddenly.

**A/N: **He he. Cliffhanger. Wonder what happens. Reviews make me happy. When I'm happy I'm less lazy. When I'm less lazy I have more incentive to update. Therefore, more reviews give me more incentive to update. So review. You know you want to.

Nimeria Out!!


	5. Revelations

**Disclaimer: **Not mine. Wish it was, but its not. Except for the stuff you don't recognize, i.e. the plot and the original characters which I won't name because there's just so many and you haven't even met all of them yet. But that's not the point. The point is that I do not own Stargate Atlantis, its places, people, or things.

**A/N: **Oh my god. You guys I am so incredibly sorry that this took so long. Please don't hurt me. I had meant to have it up within a week of the last one. But I had my insanely hard history project tot work on, my chemistry project, my Spanish project and then I got sick. So I'm really really really sorry (offers you all cookies in apology) and hopefully since I have the rest of this ready to go it should be done within the next two weeks. (bows in apology) Sorry again…

Okay, this chapter. Ahh. The continuation of what I believe is my first cliffhanger. You don't have to worry. There won't be many of them. Probably. Except in the sense that you only get bit by bit, which actually wasn't my original intention. I had intended to post it all at once but… I only have about half of it typed and its already… 40 pages on Word so… yeah. Too long for one post and this way it is easier on my beta, I don't have to finish typing to get parts up, and you lovely readers don't have to spend hours upon hours doing nothing but scrolling down the screen. But you do have to wait on updates, which I'm sure even at this point you probably aren't happy with me, but I do the best I can and who knows, maybe I find time more than once every three weeks. Right so. I think that's a long enough not for this one. glances back over it I ramble. Sorry.

**Thank you:** To Bann and Chibi and all my other friends who read the little parts of this just so I would leave them alone. Also to my reviewers. In particular, AkimaDoll, lemons and wraith oh my, and Electric Spyro. You make my day. Really, you do. As I write this I'm in the hell known as mid-season breaks. All my shows. Every last one, nothing new until January at least, and word on the street, my favorite two won't be back until March. March. How the heck am I supposed to survive until March? Back on topic, I also want to thank my dearest friends who, as I believe I've mentioned to at least one of them, the original characters of this story are amalgams of, meaning a little from one person and a little from another. And before you guys ask, no I don't remember who got what from whom. All I know is that these characters wouldn't be half what they are without you so… thanks.

And now on with the story.

**Revelations**

We could tell the radios were still working because we could hear shouting in the background.

"Caleb? Caleb?"

"Caleb can you hear us?" Only silence answered Rayne and Del as they continued their efforts. Finally, he answered.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm here. Sorry"

"What just happened?"

"The doors slammed shut. They aren't opening. Dad's on the other side and he's trying but—" his voice cut off again. This time, however, we didn't need to ask why. We could all hear very clearly the reason for his silence: the quarantine alarms.

"Oh, this is just great. Now the doors definitely won't open." Del groaned irritably. I was only half-listening. Something Caleb had said had jogged my memory.

"Caleb? When the lights were flickering, did you hear any strange voices?"

"No. Why?"

"At any point today?"

"Not unless you count what was coming over internal comms. Again, why?"

"The computers, you said they started scrolling the text or whatever it is at the same time the comms cut off?"

"Yes. Or there about, at least. What's going on?"

"Alright. I'm gonna switch my radio back to the city wide broadcast frequency. If you want to know what I think is going on, do the same." I pulled my earpiece out and fiddled with it for a minute, trying to get it back on par with the rest of the city personnel.

"Ashlei, what is going on?" Rayne asks in confusion.

"I have a theory."

"It's the apocalypse. We're all gonna die." I glared at Del as she spoke, but deigned not to answer. I got the radio to what I was pretty sure was the right channel.

"Testing, testing. Anybody hear me?" Okay so it wasn't the most original way to test it, give me a break.

"Ashlei? Honey, what are you doing? Where are you?" Oh, good. Mom got to me first. I started toward the storage room. I have a habit of having to be moving when I hold conversations over the radios, and so I fully intended to examine the contents of Dad's team's storage room more closely than I was usually permitted to do so. Rayne and Del followed.

"Hey, Mom." Was all I said by way of a response. It was really a good thing she had answered first and all, it gave my dad time to calm down slightly and she knew it so I was grateful. But Dad and Rodney were the two I needed to talk to.

"Ashlei, where the **hell** are you? Why are you on the radio? We're in the middle of a crisis, this is no time for games." I winced slightly at his harsh tone. _Nice to hear from you too dad. You alright? Not hurt? That's good. _I guess he hadn't calmed down enough.

"**I** am in the Jumper bay where **you** left me. I'm on the radio because I need to talk to you and you're likely on the other side of the city. As for the whole crisis thing, I think I noticed. The quarantine alarms were a dead give-a-way." I let my gaze slide around the room I was in. Walking over to an odd looking little device that I was sure I hadn't ever seen anywhere before, I let my tone to my father grow completely sarcastic. I notice Rayne and Del follow me in out of the corner of my eye, but rather than joining in the exploration, they just lean against the door frame and watch. For the time being he let it slide though as he momentarily turned his attention to Rodney.

"Yeah, speaking of those alarms. McKay, why are they going off?"

"I haven't the faintest, Colonel. It's a complete false alarm."

"Can you make them shut up?"

"Maybe if I was in the control room, but since I'm miles away on the other side of the city and currently am having slight difficulty even getting in to the power room, no I cannot make them shut up."

"Well, will someone who **is** in the control room please do **something **to make it stop. They're giving me a headache."

"I've got it, Colonel. Just a minute." I vaguely recognized the voice of the main technician. His name is Chuck Simons. He also happens to be from Canada. As I turned my attention to one of Rodney's little analyzer device things, Chuck managed to turn the alarms off. Rayne and Del give looks of relief at the silence.

"My ears are ringing now." I hear Del mutter irritably. Rayne nods her agreement but says nothing.

"Alright, the alarms are off, but I can't override the protocols." Chuck informs my father.

"It's alright, at least it's quiet now."

"Yes, small mercies." I mumble dryly. Luckily Dad doesn't hear me or likely I wouldn't have hearing in my right ear any longer. I reach out to touch the little analyzer device, but Del walks over from the doorway to smack my hand away. Pulling the offended appendage back to my chest I try to both glare at her and question her at the same time. If the amused look on her face as she points at the device and shakes her head to signal 'don't touch' are any indication, I failed miserably in the attempt.

With the quarantine alarms silenced, attention fell back to me. "Why do you need to talk to me?"

"I have this theory." I tell him. Even to myself I sound rather bored, and I have to admit I am. I walk over to a set of shelves and peer closely at some of the stranger looking weaponry they've discovered and acquired over the years. It's rather interesting to look at, but I'm careful to only touch the ones that I can clearly tell how they work.

"You have a theory?" My father repeats dubiously. I make a noise to the affirmative.

"Dear God." Rodney gasps, and I'm not sure whether the horror in his voice is real or not.

"That's what I said." Del's voice echoes strangely as I hear it both from behind me and over the radio in my ear. On the radio ten different people start talking at once.

"Alright. Everybody just shut up for a minute." Unsurprisingly, they did. "Ashlei, I told you to either stay in the Jumper bay or go back to the tower."

"I'm** in** the Jumper bay." I sigh; my exasperation cuts through my calm. He's driving me crazy. Hadn't I already told him I was still in the Jumper bay? "Del and Rayne and I stayed here, and Jet and Alan and Aaron went back to the tower."

"So tell me then, if you haven't left the Jumper bay, how is it you know enough about what's going on to form a theory?" If his voice was anything to judge by, then he was getting far madder by the minute. I wasn't too worried though as he was currently on the other side of the city, and if I was right I had a feeling he wouldn't be mad. If I was wrong well… I'd probably go into hiding for a month or so.

"A little birdie told me." It was childish and it was stupid, but I wasn't getting Caleb in trouble after he'd helped us. Carefully I picked up one of the weapons I knew to be a stunner from the shelf I was examining. What exactly this one's name was, I'm not sure. I looked it over more closely, intrigued by the designs on the sides.

"Ashlei." I flinched. Good grief, I didn't think it was possible for any human being to growl like that, with the notable exception of Ronon.

"I told her, Colonel." Caleb confessed. I blinked in surprise. Why would he do that? He knows he'll get in trouble. Caleb's confession caught me so off guard that my fingers slipped on the stunner and activated it, sending a blast of bright green energy bouncing off the wall. I let out a small yelp as I dodged out of the way, and it soared out into the Jumper bay and pinged about a bit before losing its momentum and fizzling out of existence. I quickly put the stunner down and shot apologetic looks and my two friends. Rayne seemed amused but Del just glared. Unfortunately, Mom had heard the yelp.

"Ashlei, what are you doing?" She asks, concern filling her voice.

"Currently? Trying not to accidentally shoot myself with stunners."

"What?"

"Rayne, are you alright?" Teyla asks calmly, though even I can hear the faint concern. She may be worried for her daughter's safety, but she trusts us to call for help when we need it.

"Del?" A new voice floats over the comm system. I recognize it instantly. This is Marissa McKay, Del's mother. A lovely lady for the most part, but resilient enough to put up with Rodney. Daddy sometimes says that Rodney used a love potion to get Marissa to marry him, and that she's just too honorable to back out. Anyone who looks can see that she loves him though. It's really very sweet.

"We're fine." Rayne answers for both of them.

"Ashlei's in here messing around with the stunners and things because she's curious and wants to know what they do." Del smirks at me as I glare at her.

"So she thought it would be a good idea to nearly stun herself?" Rodney demands.

"I wasn't trying to." I protested. 

"Like that makes it better." Rodney snorts.

"McKay." Dad says warningly. "Now Ashlei, I vaguely remember you saying you had a theory?" _Oh, yeah. Whoops._

It's obvious that the quarantine lockdown has shutdown both his movements, and those of everyone else, otherwise he'd be doing just about anything except listening to me. Not that I blame him or anything. I mean really, I'm only seventeen, what the heck do I know about crises. Except, the thing is, being born and raised in Atlantis, I've lived through quite a lot. I was even a hostage once. But that's a story for a different time.

"Rodney, am I right in saying that there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with any of the systems? According to the diagnostics I mean." I picked up another weapons on the shelf. This one was smaller. I couldn't quite tell what it did. It was, however, an interesting shade of purple that I just had to examine more closely.

"Yes. Yes. That's what they diagnostics say. Obviously they're wrong." Rodney snapped.

"No. I don't think so."

"I wasn't aware you thought." Del sniped. I glared and pointed what I thought was the business end of the weapon at her. Del rolled her eyes and made a 'turn-it-around' motion with her hands after pointing at it. Okay, I was wrong. So what. I put it back where I'd gotten it from and left that shelf alone. Not the safest of things to be examining if you don't know how they work.

"Well, what **do** you think?" Rodney demanded in his sarcastic tone of voice that said he either a) didn't care or b) didn't care **and** was sure you were wrong. I took a breath and stole myself for the reactions I was sure to get.

"I think the city's trying to talk to us." I said, or tried to say. It came out more as 'Ithinthecitrytalkus'.

"Ummmm…. What was that Ashlei?" Daddy asks carefully, as if afraid I may have gone insane and not wanting to test his theory. I took another deep breath. I wasn't so much worried about what they were going to think as I was worried about what they'd do to me. Like lock me up.

"I think the city is trying to talk to us." I repeated, deliberately talking slower than normal so that if I did try to rush it out it would still be discernable. Only silence met my theory. And more silence, and more silence, oh and listen more silence. "Rodney?" I called worriedly, afraid he may have fain- passed out.

"Dad?"

"It is alright, Delilah." Del flinched; Teyla always used her full name, no matter how much Del asked her not to. "I believe he is in shock."

"Oh." I relaxed. "Well, that's fine. Just let me know when he recovers." Del shakes her head and looks up in exasperation at me. I just grin. I move across the room to a peculiar set of empty shelves that I am almost positive hadn't been there before. Putting my hand over the mouthpiece I turn towards Rayne. "Have these always been here?"

"I've never noticed one way or the other." She answers. She is watching me dubiously, not sure if my fiddling around in here is good or not. Del, on the other hand, is back to standing as far away from me as she possibly can while still being in the room. She appears to just me doing it to irk me, however, so I'm reassured that whatever it is that I'm currently messing with isn't deadly.

"Huh." It was as I was poking gently at an odd sort of crest thing (in the shape of what I'm pretty sure was an over view of the city) engraved into the middle shelf that Rodney recovered from his moment of shock and probably horror at how seemingly dumb my idea was.

"Are you insane? Sheppard I think you may need to lock you're daughter up and I don't mean in her room. This is ridiculous. We've been here for over twenty years now. We know a lot more than we did when we first got here but still. The city? Talking? Please. I thought you were smarter than that, Ashlei." He snorted in disapproval. _Well thanks, Rodney. Nice to know you look at things with an open mind. I know it's out there but…_

"Well, fine then. Tell me, Rodney," I snap angrily. "If the city isn't trying to talk to us, to **me**, then why was there a voice imploring my help when this happened this morning."

"Well, I suppose—Wait…What do you mean this happened to you this morning?!" Rodney yelled. Across the city everyone with earpieces winced in pain at the volume and tone.

"I mean that it sort of happened this morning, twice actually. Could you maybe not yell? I like my hearing."

"Why didn't you say something?" Dad demanded, and whether he did it on purpose or not I was grateful because he managed to keep Rodney from tearing into me.

I looked underneath the empty shelves to see if there was something there that might hint to their purpose as I answered calmly, "Because it's happened before and nothing has ever come of it." At this point my ears were assaulted by many yelling voices. I suppose that it probably hadn't been the best time to reveal that little bit of information, but he had asked. It didn't appear that there was anything on the bottom of the shelves and nothing on the tops unless you count the emblem thingy. Oddly enough while the top and bottom of the three were sturdily supported, the middle seemed to have no visible support. Strange.

"Okay, so let's **assume** that the city can talk to us. What does it want?" Rodney had apparently regained some amount of control because he wasn't screaming, he wasn't yelling, and his language wasn't something that you wouldn't want a young child to hear.

"I have a feeling that that is what the scrolling language on the computers is."

"Oh, that's wonderful. How do you plan on getting to a computer? The city is in quarantine lockdown and the doors were hard to open even before then." I frowned, Rodney had a point. I started to back away from the shelf to go see I could possibly get the doors to open. My ATA gene **is** the strongest in the city, stronger even than my dad's. Carson figures this has something to do with the strength of my dad's gene and the fact that I was born here and was exposed to Atlantean technology from the moment of conception. To his credit, all the children who were born here seem to have stronger ATA genes than their parents and even some of the children whose parents don't possess the gene have managed to have it themselves, so he's probably right on that count. He usually is about things like this.

My foot hit something and I stumbled backwards. Realizing that I was about to fall into the weapons I twisted and tried to control my fall. I managed to hit the wall. I thought I was good but then the whole room shook and I fell forward. I landed on the empty shelves, the majority of my weight going on the odd middle shelf. I expected the shelf to jab into my ribs and was all set for the pain, but it never came.

The shelf gave under my weight and fell as if on hinges flush against the wall. A faint whirring sound filled the room, and then a portion of the wall, the size of a normal door, slid back a few inches and then sideways into the wall. Behind it lay a hallway, branching off in several places. Del, Rayne and I stared in amazement. Not wanting to give away this newfound secret to the adults just yet, I quickly returned my attention to Rodney.

"Well," I told him, "I'm sure we'll figure something out. Talk to you later. Bye." I said the last part very fast and deactivated my radio. Rayne and Del followed suit, and the three of us then turned our attention to the hallway.

"Ashlei, did you… um… did you know the city had secret passages?" Rayne managed.

"No, no I didn't. Did you?"

"No."

"Del?" we asked in unison.

"I might have had some idea of the sort, but nothing solid, and I'd never have expected to find one in one of the storage rooms."

"Well, there don't appear to be any doors working in the city, so likely this is the best and possibly only way to get where we're going."

"And where, may I ask, is that?"

"Your lab, of course. Where else?" Suddenly, I got a gut instinct. "Hey, can we keep this a secret? Just between the three of us? We don't tell the adults, we don't tell my brothers, we don't tell your siblings, no one."

"What?! Why?" Del demands.

"Del, if they found out they'd use it. Everyone would be using them. I have a feeling, just a gut feeling that these passageways weren't meant to be public knowledge. I know it sounds crazy, but… just please, Del."

"Alright, alright. I can keep a secret."

"As can I." Rayne agrees.

"Excellent. That's the deal then. No one ever learns of this unless the three of us agree." Rayne nodded in agreement, and Del copied her reluctantly. "So let's go then."

**A/N: **Hi again. See? Not so much of a cliffhanger. And nothing bad happened to anyone…yet. Hehe. Maybe something will in the next chapter. Maybe it won't. I'm not telling. Read and find out. Oh and review. Please. It makes me so happy to see what you think. So push the little purple button. It's just so much fun.

Again, I'm very sorry for the long wait. It was entirely unintentional.

Nimeria OUT!!


	6. Defiance

**Disclaimer: **Not mine. Wish it was, but its not. Except for the stuff you don't recognize, i.e. the plot and the original characters which I won't name because there's just so many and you haven't even met all of them yet. But that's not the point. The point is that I do not own Stargate Atlantis, its places, people, or things.

**A/N:** Hi again. This is chapter… six I believe. This chapter is the build up to the chapter when I will reveal what's going on. But it's not quite there yet. That'll be one of the next two. Probably the next one. Back to this chapter. I had a hard time finding a title for it. Revelations would have been good but I'd already used that. So I thought. Hard. I came up with Defiance because… well, you'll see. This chapter also marks the end of what I have typed. So the time between the last update and this one… may very well be nothing compared to this one and the next one. Which I apologize for profusely but school and work are kind of swamping me. Sorry. I do get chapters up as fast as I can so you can count on the fact that the second its ready to go it'll be up. I'm putting this up now because I'm going to be out of town until late on Monday and when I get home, I probably won't want to mess with it. So please, enjoy.

**Thanks: **As always to Bann, Chibi, my many friends and my reviewers. I would love to write something more profound, you guys definitely deserve it, but my brain is drawing a blank. Sorry. I love you guys. In place of sugary words, I give you actual sugar. (Offers e-candy)

**Defiance**

The three of us starts off down the passageway. I'd decided almost as soon as we'd gotten back to the city that the best place to go would be the lab that had been designated Del's. Why a sixteen-year-old genius had a lab in a city full of brilliant people was really confusing to some people. Of course, those people don't actually know Del, and therefore don't realize that she's as brilliant at sixteen as they are at full grown adulthood. Del being in school is really just a bit of an excuse to keep her busy.

So, anyhow, one of the empty, out of the way labs was designated Del's because she's too much like Rodney to have underfoot all the time. Plus, this way when he gets to be to much to handle and there was very little to no hope of rescue by one of the other senior staff, it's perfectly acceptable for Radek to suggest that he go check on his clone child (and I swear Radek really does call her that) because she had been left alone too long. I was hoping very hard that Del's lab also had an access to this network of secret passages.

I'm brought out of my reverie very quickly when I nearly walk into a wall. So far I've been guessing at where we should turn and when based on the way I would have taken to get from the Jumper bay to Del's lab. Now, however, I would have turned left but was being face with a dead end. The wall bore only a map of the city like the ones in the transporters and symbols along the border on the sides.

"Oh, great. A dead end. Should have realized this would be a bad idea. I mean its not like we actually know where we're going. Not to mention the fact that we are three floors above my lab."

"Yes, Del. I know that. My plan was to worry about that once we actually got to the right area of the city."

"Well, your plan needs to be revised now so by all means…" Del trailed off and gestured around her in a way I think was meant to indicate revising the plan. I considered sticking my tongue out at her and, deciding it would only lead to a headache, took in the surrounding walls instead.

Other than the map the walls were completely blank, but there was something about that map that drew me to it, made me think it was the answer to the question I had about where to go know and how to get there. My eyes were drawn to the symbols on the left side of the map. A 'V' at the top and then… Atlantean numbers? Could it be? Was it possible?

I reached out with one hand and gently pressed the Atlantean equivalent of '3'. There was a bright flash of light. When it cleared we were standing in a hallway that looked identical to the one we'd been in. Only this one wasn't a dead end.

"Okay, what just happened?" Del looked somewhat uneasy, and yet curious at the same time.

"I could be wrong, but I think we were transported down three floors." I don't know much more than her, but I should at least act like I do. Just to, you know, keep her off my back about it.

"Seriously?" Del demands in disbelief.

"We are in a place different than where we were, and Ashlei pressed the 3 so…" As usual, Rayne seems neither phased nor bothered by what's happened.

"So the network of secret passages has a transporter system separate from the public one that stopped working with everything else a few hours ago?"

"You sound surprised, Del." I say off-handedly.

"I'm not, just…" I raise an eyebrow. "Okay I am. I'm surprised. Happy?!"

"Nope." I smirk at her.

"Figures. You—"

"Guys!" Rayne cut her off. "Shouldn't we be headed for Del's lab?"

"Oh. Right." Sometimes I wonder if Del and I could work together and actually get anything done without Rayne. "Ummm…" I closed my eyes and tried to create a mental picture of the layout of this floor. Then I tried to figure out where we were. Not as easy as it sounds and Del made it all the harder with her constant background commentary on why peoples shouldn't just run off into secret passageways without knowing their way around. As per the usual when she starts ranting, I ignored her and started walking in the direction that I hoped would lead to Del's lab.

I didn't look behind me but I knew Del was following because she was still ranting about one thing or another, and, while Rayne was quiet, she was walking right beside me. We continued our walk in relative silence. Occasionally Rayne would inquire as to where I thought we were in relation to the outside hallways, and Del had given up her rant to theorize on how the transporter system in here could possibly be on a separate power source than the main one.

Finally, we came to a stop at what I was almost entirely sure was Del's lab. There were lines in the walls that would indicate a door, and an outline of a hand in the center. Hesitantly, because I had no idea if it was just there for show or if it had a purpose beyond what I thought it as, I put my hand into the outline. There was a whirring and then the door slid towards us a little then sideways into the wall.

On the other side of the door was, unfortunately, not Del's lab; however, it was at least the hallway outside Del's lab. The three of us walked out into the hallway, starting in surprise as the door slid back into its place.

"Okay, not my lab."

"Yes, but it is just down the hallway a ways. Ashlei did well."

"Thanks Rayne." She smiled warmly at me in reply. "Well, come on. I think we might be able to get the door to the lab open if Del and I both think at it really hard." Del groaned and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'freaking optimist' under her breath. To which I merely grinned in response.

It took less than two minutes to walk through down the hall to the door of Del's lab. We stopped in front of it and just kind of stared. No one, as far as we know, had yet been able to get any of the doors open. Del and I, though, we're different. Del's own ATA gene was weaker only than mine and my dad's. No one is entirely sure if she got it randomly, as some do, or inherited it, like I had. Carson's been looking into it because some of the children of people who received their genes through the gene therapy do have the gene, but others don't.

"So what now?"

"Umm. I guess we just do like normal?" Even to me it sounded more like a question than a suggestion. Del just shrugged in agreement, but before I could even start to think 'open' at the door, it activated. I stared at the open doorway in amazement before turning an inquiring glance at Del, who shook her head to indicate it hadn't been her. I considered for a minute, and then shrugged, deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Upon entering the room, I made straight for the laptop on the desk. Del flopped into one of the comfy chairs Rayne and I had brought in here so the three of us could just kind of hang out in the lab and be comfortable. Rayne sat in another. I sat on the stool and flipped the top up on the laptop and turned it on. As I waited for it to load I turned my radio back on.

"How's it coming?" I inquired. More to let them know I was back on the frequency then anything else, because, despite what had just happened, I had a feeling no one else was gonna be able to get through any doorways. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rayne and Del give me confused looks before realizing I was talking into my radio and turning theirs back on as well.

"Ah. Mi-chi. Given up on trying to get out yet?" Rodney. Always so smug and sure of himself. This time he's wrong; I'm going to love proving it to him.

"There was never any trying involved, Rodney." I purposely add a faint drawl to my response, sounding very much like my dad, who, knowing me as well as he does, must have realized something was up.

"Ash, where are you? Why did you turn your radio off?" Dad sounded suspicious, but calmer than he had earlier. Probably mother had talked to him and clamed him down some. He was still obviously not happy, but he was also apparently resigned to the fact that I was going to do this and he couldn't stop me.

"My lab." Trust Del to just cut into a conversation. "To be specific, she's sitting in front of my laptop waiting for it to load completely. It's taking longer than usual, likely because of whatever's going on with the system." Bored, I spun the stool around.

"How the Hell did you get down there?!" Rodney would deny it to his dying day, but he most definitely screeched.

"Ahh…. Call it a trade secret." I look at my friend in surprise. Yes, we'd decided to keep it a secret but, to openly refuse to tell her dad in such an… annoying way. Well, let's just say it wasn't something I'd expected her to do.

"Del."

"Look, it happens to be Ashlei's secret. If you want to know, you have to convince **her** that you should. Until then, well, you're ever so good at figuring things out on your own so…" To my surprise, Del actually winked at me. I shrugged. I didn't know what was up with her and Caleb, but whatever it was, I sort of liked it. I spun the stool the other direction idly.

"I don't suppose I could convince Rayne to give it up could I?"

"Not likely Daddy." I told him as I spun the chair the first way again; it squeaked. Del glared. I just blinked, smiled innocently, and spun it again. Del was about to say something, probably along the lines of 'stop it before you break it moron', when the laptop beeped.

I turned my attention to the screen and blinked in surprised confusion. Whatever the text was, it wasn't a language I could read. Yet, somehow, in someway, it looked familiar. "So nobody can read this then? No one at all. No one even thinks it looks familiar?"

"That's right. Why?" 

"Daddy, it looks familiar. I don't understand it but… it's familiar."

"Do you happen to know why it looks familiar, honey? Like where you may have seen it before?" Mother inquires calmly.

"I— I'm not sure that I've ever actually seen anything like it before."

"Then how could it possibly be familiar!" Rodney demands.

"I don't know. It just is."

"It just **is**? What the heck kind of answer is that. 'It just is.' Please. That's like saying that the Stargate just works."

"Which it does." Del protests, "Unless, of course, you have a deeper understanding of the thing, in which case there are a lot of things to factor in but otherwise… it just works."

"What are you saying?" Rodney gently demands of his daughter.

"I think Ashlei's right. Whatever these symbols are… they aren't anything I recognize, and, yet, for some reason, I feel like she should know what it means."

"I feel much the same." Rayne chimes in from behind us.

"So… What now? Have hit dead end." Radek's voice fizzled over the comms. I was glad to hear him talking. A very close bond exists between the people out here in the city. It is a strong and resilient bond of loyalty, but a stronger bond exists between the senior staff, their seconds, and their children. Radek is as dear to me as Ronon or Rodney.

Speaking of Ronon, he and Rayne seemed to have switched over to a separate comm line and were apparently having a very heated discussion in which he was apparently demanding that she cease all activity and just stay put before she got hurt and she… well, in true Dex fashion Rayne was point blank refusing to do anything of the sort and was imploring her mother for help.

"Radek? When did you regain consciousness?"

"Just a few minutes ago when you were screeching like hawk diving for food."

"I wasn't screeching."

"Aye, laddie, you rather were." Carson's brogue added to the many voices on the open channel, and there were many more people who were remaining silent. It was rather disconcerting to realize that right now all those live might very well depend on us. On somebody recognizing where those symbols were from. So this was what it felt like to be in my parents shoes. I gained a new found respect for their ability to keep a cool head and make rational decisions in the midst of chaos.

"I was—"

"Now is **Not **the time, McKay." Dad interrupted.

"General's right." Marcus. Good to know he was still okay. "Ashlei, think really hard. Are you absolutely certain you've never seen the symbols anywhere before?"

"I am one hundred percent certain I have never in my life even seen something like them."

"I'll go back to my early question of how that's possible. Changing my reasoning to the fact that you've been everywhere in this city and have a penchant for even being where you aren't supposed to be." Rodney mutters irritably.

"I have been everywhere. We-" here I made a sweeping gesture to include Rayne and Del, which was entirely pointless because they were the only ones who could see me anyhow. "-have been everywhere. Made it a point to get familiar with the city. We've been everywhere. Seen everything. But this is familiar to Del because she's seen it and me because it just is. How is that possible? I've been everywhere." I have a tendency to ramble along and think out loud (**A/N: yes for those of you who have read my other author's notes, that part came from me. But I think that's the only bit that did) **

"No, actually, Ash, now that I think about it… you haven't been everywhere I have." Del was looking at me with a look in her eyes I couldn't recognize. After a moment I realized what she meant.

"The chair room." I stated without feeling.

"You've never been in the chair room?" I wasn't entirely sure who had spoken because I was too distracted to discern the voice.

"She isn't supposed to go near it." that, I was almost certain was my dad. I had been forbidden to enter the chair room at a young age. I was, as dad had said, not even supposed to go near it because every time I did, the place went a little crazy. Much like it was now. Teyla commented as such.

"There can't possibly be a connection. She's a child." I wasn't entirely sure but I think that was probably the voice of Colonel Anthony Merric, the guy who took over the Daedalus when Caldwell retired here to Atlantis a few years back. Picture your average, strictly by- the-book, cranky drill sergeant looking guy with semi-non-existent light brown hair, ice cold brown eyes and a scar on his right cheek and you've basically got Merric. But he really isn't important now… or ever as far as I'm concerned.

"No, she has a point." Whether Rodney actually believed this or was just using it as a way to irritate Merric, whom very few in the city like, was unclear, but as usual Rodney has reasoning for everything. "Sheppard. Maybe you should have let her in there a long time ago. Maybe the city is doing this because she hasn't been allowed to heed its earlier callings."

"I think, given the fact that the city has previously attempted to contact Ashlei, whatever the message reads, it is meant for her."

"Agreed."

"Right." I mutter. "So, um… how exactly do I talk to the city?" Dead silence answered my inquiry. "Rodney?" No answer. I turned to look at Del and Rayne, who had finally finished her argument with her father, but they looked just as clueless as I. "Daddy?" My voice pitched upward in fear that something might have happened.

"No, its okay Ashlei. We're still here." I relaxed.

"Ashlei, are you saying you've never talked to the city?"

"Of course I haven't!" I notice the disbelieving looks on Rayne and Del's faces and sigh, adding, "I tried, but I never got a response."

"Okay. This? This could be a problem"

"Thank you, Rodney, for stating the obvious."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Forgive me if our impending doom is forcing me to think out loud."

"That wasn't thinking that was—"

"Gentlemen!" Mother demanded silence of my dad and Rodney. Some things never change no matter the level of 'impending doom' or amount of time, daddy and Rodney will still bicker like children with each other. "Now is _not_ the time. Ashlei," and just like that her tone softens; I can practically see the gentle look of calm on her face in my mind as she speaks to me. "Are you sure you never got any response at all? Ever?"

"I only tried once or twice, but I'm pretty sure."

"Why did you only try twice?" Again the voice was so cold it could only belong to Merric.

"What I want to know is why this is the first time she's mentioned anything of the sort." Rodney snaps. Del shakes her head and drops it into her hands after she flops down on a chair. She's very fond of her dad, but even she can see that sometimes his priorities get a little out of whack. In this case, worrying about the past over the present which is so very rare for him.

"If you think about it," Lorne's voice cuts in smoothly. "The answer is probably the same for both."

"Aye. We da never believer her if she had said somethin'. And if someone woulda seen her talkin' to nothing we da likely sent her down to Psych." Carson agrees.

"At least someone understands it." I mutter dryly, irritated at having my actions analyzed.

"Ash, why don't you just try talking to the city again now, sweetie? Maybe it will work now because Atlantis wants to talk to you." Dad suggested softly. Over the open line I thought I may have heard someone grumble something about how they were staking their lives on the insane theory of a 17-year-old-girl that the city they'd been living in for over twenty years was alive. No one said anything louder, though, so I decided I may as well try it.

"Ummm. Okay." I stood up. Rayne had flopped into the chair Del had previously occupied, and Del had moved over to lean against her table. She was staring into space, her arms crossed across her chest, chewing absently at her bottom lip, lost in thought. She had _that_ look on her face. The one that said the pieces were starting to slot together in her mind, which was good, because I was pretty sure I knew what I was going to have to do if this didn't work, but I wanted someone else to be the one to suggest it. "Ummm…" What did you say to a 10,000 year-old city? "Hi, uh, Atlantis. I got your message, and, well, here I am." I paused. "Ready to talk." This was starting to sound stupid even to my own ears. "Waiting on you." The silence stretched on. "Atlantis?"

"Enough, Ashlei." Del's voice echoed in my ear as she spoke both to me and to the radio. "That isn't going to work."

"Delilah, why do you think it won't work?" Teyla asked gently. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Del cringe at the use of her full name like she always does.

"Because there's only one way to interface with the city" She states calmly. Inwardly I let out a sigh of relief. I knew I could count on Del to figure this out. "And that's the chair."

"Absolutely not." Dad didn't yell, he didn't snap, he didn't bark it out like an order. He just said it, but the way he had said it left no room for debate. I wasn't doing this.

"Daddy, please." I begged.

"I said no."

"Sheppard, maybe we should think about this. Del's right. The chair is the only direct neural interface in the city. It may very well be the only way to find out what's going on." Rodney tried to reason.

"No."

"John-" Mother started.

"Please. Please let me do this." I begged again. I was beginning to get angry. Why was he doing this? Why couldn't he see? This may be the only way to save the city.

"No means no. Absolutely not. Elizabeth you've seen the way it gets when she goes near there."

"Yes, but with the way things are-"

"With the way things are the chances of something happening that she can't handle are just that much higher. We've already had one injury from a power spike. Imagine what would happen if her brain was linked to the city!"

"General, I hate to be rude but-" Del protested.

"NO! Any other way you girls want to try, any other ideas, fine go ahead. But Ashlei is not sitting in that chair!" he was yelling now. I was surprised to find that I didn't care. I was more angry than I could ever remember being. I had a moment to realize that this was probably what it felt like to be in a blind rage before I stopped thinking and just acted.

"I'm really very curious, Daddy," I snarl as I walk over to the back wall of Del's lab and palm a panel I somehow know will open one of the doors to the secret corridors. "You are trapped in some hallway two floors down from us and maybe half a mile away. The doors won't open," if I'd had any presence of mind at the time I would have noted the irony of seeing the secret door open before at just that moment. "the transporters don't work, and no one even has a way to tell where I am except for what I tell you. How exactly," I step into the corridor and, without looking behind me to see if Del and Rayne are following, start off in and angry half-walk, half-run. "do you plan to stop me?" I tore angrily off down the corridor.

I ran and I just kept running, ignoring the angry voices in my ear yelling at me and each other over the radio. I whipped along the turns, faint lines representing the doors flew by, maps that I slowed just long enough to look at began to blur. I have to say that even on a good day running the entire way from Del's lab to the chair room was something that I would never even consider. It was just too far. But I was so mad, mad at my dad for being so overprotective, mad at my mom, Del, and Rodney for not being able to reason with him, mad at Carson, Teyla, and Ronon for not even trying. I was mad at just about everyone. Hell, I was even mad at myself for not doing something for the city sooner. So I ran, allowing the echoing beat of my feet against the floor to lull my thoughts to calmness.

Finally, I reached the chair room. How I knew it was the chair room when I'd never been there, I wasn't sure. I just knew this was it. I set my hand into the handprint in the middle of the faint lines representing the door and the wall dissolved.

I hesitated before stepping into the room. I had never been a particularly obedient child. At the same time I had never been particularly disobedient. Sure, I played with things I wasn't supposed to in the labs, but I had the gene and, oddly enough, Rodney never seemed to care too much unless I actually damaged something. It was true that I spent a lot of time in the outer reaches of the city, but I never went alone and it was impossible to resist the need to explore. Yes, I've skipped classes and snuck out in the middle of the night and read reports I wasn't supposed to just so I could know what was going on. But there were two things I have never done, stepped inside this room, and directly defied my father. Indirectly, yes. Directly, no.

If I took even one more step in the direction I was headed, I would do both. If I took one more step there would be no turning back. I was about to cross a line here and not only was I not even sure if I wanted to, I wasn't entirely sure that I could. I heard a soft sound behind me and turned to see Rayne and Del come to a halt behind me. Rayne said something into the radio, actually yelled is probably a more correct description, and silence fell as everyone stopped arguing. Del put her hand on my shoulder and gave me a supportive look that was mirrored on Rayne's face. I gave them appreciative glances and turned back around. I could do this. I had to do this. Most importantly, I wanted to do this. I inhaled slightly and stepped over the threshold and into the room.

**A/N: **Oh. Cliffhanger. blinks in confusion and looks at multiple copies of story Wow. I didn't even see it coming. Sorry guys, I know this is cruel, but it is the only really bad cliffie you've had to put up with so far. I promise if I get lots of nice reviews I won't make anymore cliffhangers on this story. I may even post everything that's left minus the epilogue all at once. But that will take Many nice reviews. So it's in your hands. Whatever you want. Reviews will also inspire me to get the next chapter up sooner. If you've read the other author's notes you know that all of this up until now was typed by early January. Posting happens when I feel like it and have the time. Reviews inspire me to feel like it and make time. So review, because we all hate cliffhangers.

Nimeria OUT!!


	7. The New and the Old

**Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate Atlantis nor any of the plots, characters, places, or things thereof. I wish I did. But I don't. **

**A/N: **I am so incredibly sorry for the wait AGAIN.. I apologize. I really do. I was so proud of myself for getting the previous chapter up so quickly. But then I was gone that weekend and then I got distracted and then I remembered but I didn't have the time and…. Well. I'm really sorry. In an effort to make this up to you I have posted everything that's left together. Even the epilogue. S'all here. Now I have a question. I have the next story mostly hand written but haven't even thought about starting to type it yet. So.

Do you guys: A) Want it like this one, chapter by chapter hopefully not waiting as long and not having to read continuously for too long but the updates won't be consistent.

OR

B) Want to wait until I get it all done and ready to go and then just get the entire story in one go, which will take longer to get up but you won't have to worry about updates…you will however have to worry about the insane amount of time between installment two and installment three which I haven't even started writing yet.

It's up to you. Give me a vote and we'll figure it out.

Thanks: As always to Bann my beta, to Chibi my…chibi, to AkimaDoll, Electric Spyro and lemons and wraith oh my and everyone else who reviewed. Thanks guys. The Reviews made me happy. As usual. Also, I'd like to take this moment to give a shout out to those of you who are reading the story but just not reviewing. Would I like you to review? Yes, but just knowing that people are reading this is enough to lift my spirits…not that I have reason to be depressed….but…..right. Again I am incredibly sorry. So I'm going to stop rambling now and just give you the story kay? Kay.

**The New and The Old**

For the first time in my life, the lights in the room didn't start flashing wildly. The chair and its platform didn't just randomly power up. Nothing at all happened and for the first time in my life I got to really look at the room. It was rather plain, like any other room. It had consoles around the room and panels on the walls. Taking a deep breath I finally allowed my attention to fall on the reason I was here.

"Wow." I breathed, thoroughly in awe. There wasn't a whole lot else to be said. The platform looked like a kind of spider web and the chair itself was covered in intricate designs and patters that seemed to echo that motif. "It's amazing!" Apparently, I must have spoken into the radio because my dad responded. 

"Yeah. It is." He said grudgingly. I walked forward and stepped onto the platform, which lit up beneath me. Moving carefully and reverently forward, I could feel Del and Rayne watching me as I reached out to touch the chair. The very second my finders made contact the chair lit up and I yanked my hand away with a gasp, staring at my fingers in amazement.

"What? What's wrong?" Daddy sounded so helpless and concerned that I began to forget I was mad at him. Finding my voice I reassured him.

"Nothing's wrong. It's just…" I paused, unsure how to continue. "when I touched it, I felt…" how was I supposed to put the feeling into words? That feeling I'd gotten of another presence. Almost as if by touching the chair, I'd touched the entire city all at once and yet only just one being. More than once, I've felt the city whispering in the back of my mind. Rarely, but it's happened. But this, this had been entirely different and I couldn't find words to explain it. "I don't know how to explain what I felt, but believe me, there is absolutely nothing wrong, Daddy."

"Ash…" he didn't want me to do this. I knew that much already, but from the tone of his voice and the way he said my name I realized that it wasn't because he didn't think I was old enough to handle this. It wasn't because he was afraid I'd make things worse and possibly kill everyone or destroy the city. No. He knew I could handle this, he knew I was old enough, and that I would have complete control the whole time.

What he **was** afraid of was that by letting me do this, he was going to lose me. Whether it was because I may stay linked to the city or because I grew up completely and stopped needing him around, he was absolutely terrified that he was going to lose me. He was clear on the other side of the city, completely helpless, and absolutely terrified.

"Daddy, it'll be okay." I tried to convey to him that I understood, that I wasn't ever going to stop needing him, and that I would be perfectly safe. "Please."

"Ashlei, I can't stop you." His voice was so full of defeat and self-hate that he wasn't here that any anger I had left towards him, completely disappeared.

"I know. Please." No one said anything and I got the feeling that they were trying to listen without listening to give us as much privacy as possible. The silence stretched on and on. I was doing this either way, but it would make it so much easier on everyone if he let me. I wanted him to let me. So I waited for his reply.

"Okay. Fine. Just- be careful." If he'd been in the same room I would have jumped on him and hugged him. Instead I had to settle for a quick 'Thank you'.

I was just about to sit down when I remembered something.

"Del, I have no idea what's going to happen so…" 

"Don't worry. I promise I won't panic." She said with a smile and Rayne nodded in agreement.

Closing my eye, I turned around and sat down. The chair reclined immediately and I waited for some flash or something to indicate a change, but nothing happened. Confused, I opened my eyes.

"Del, how-" but I never got around to asking her because she wasn't there. Rayne wasn't there either. Actually, in all technicalities, I was the one who wasn't there, because what I saw around me? Definitely not the chair room. I gaped in amazement at my new surroundings.

I was still sitting in the chair, but the chair was now located in some kind of park. There was a winding path that stopped at the base of the platform. The park was full of flowers and trees and while it looked like something that might exist on Atlantis, I'd never seen anything like it before. The chair sat itself back up and I stood and continued to look around.

"Where the heck am I?" I muttered to myself as I started walking down the path to try and find some indication.

"I am afraid the only answer I can give you, is not very easy to understand." I yelped in surprise and spun around. I was met with quite a sight. It was a woman, but there was something odd about her. She had a kind and gentle face, a very young looking one, but eyes, the color of the ocean surrounding the city, which told of age and of struggle, of war and of peace. They told of pain, of loneliness, of wisdom and of joy. Her hair was an odd shade of white that reminded me of the white that had topped the breakers I'd been surfing earlier today. She wore a loose, flowing dress of sea foam green and her skin was the color of sand. "Hello, dear one. I am sorry to have scared you; it was not my intention." She smiled kindly. Her voice mad me think of late nights in silence with only the sounds of the city, of Puddle jumpers and the 'Gate and the transporters and opening doors. It was all so familiar and suddenly something clicked.

"You're Atlantis." I whispered, amazed and in awe. Her smile grew.

"I am. Thank you for coming here."

"Of course," I nodded. "But where exactly am I?"

"Ah. Yes, of course. Dear one-"

"Ashlei." I corrected. She gave me a confused look. "My name, it's Ashlei."

"I may call you this?" She said hesitantly.

"Well, yeah. Why wouldn't you?" I asked, confused.

"Every other Lord or Lady Voqui have preferred that I refer to them as such."

"Voqui?" Even as I said it, I somehow knew what it meant. "Voice. Well, I don't know why you'd call me that but Ashlei will do just fine."

"Very well, Ashlei. In answer to your earlier question, your body is still in the chair room. Your mind has been brought to a level where we can communicate. As time wears on and you gain experience, you will be able to understand me without the aid of the chair."

"Wait a minute. Why me?"

"You are the Lady Voqui. My voice. You serve as liason between me and the people of the city. In this way, many crises can be averted." She paused a moment. "Will you walk with me?" she gestured to the path. I nodded and we set of at an easy pace. "If you are willing to listen, I can explain everything to you." Atlantis suggested gently.

"Please do." I implored her. I was so confused. Everything felt so surreal, and yet, I knew this was real. It felt so…right.

"Long ago, in the original home galaxy of the Ancients, I was built. Whether I was made to be sentient on purpose or it came about as a result of the level of technology, I do not know. I was well aware of my people. I protected them, I housed them, I loved them. I was always aware of what they were doing, but rarely could I tell them what was dangerous because the only time I was capable of speaking to them was when the city's leader sate in the chair.

"For many years, this was not a problem, but, inevitably, there came a day when the possible annihilation of all of my beloved people was at hand. A young scientist was attempting to create a cure to a raging disease. Unfortunately, it mutated, creating a disease beyond even the Ancient's ability to heal for long."

"The plague." I gasped. Ocean blue eyes glinted as Atlantis grinned wryly and nodded.

"The mutation resulted in an explosion in the testing facility. The poor man was killed instantly. I tried to war the others. Tried to refuse their entry into the infected room, but they forced their way in and by the time the Head Councilwoman sat in the chair, it was already too late.

"We were forced to leave our beloved Earth and come here. In an attempt to prevent anything of the sort from ever happening again, the geneticists created a gene in much the same way as they created that of the one best able to control the chair. The gene is different from any other and allows the highest level of access. When the bearer of that gene reaches a certain age a ceremony takes place, activating a link between them and me. They grow in experience and in mind until communication between us takes little to no effort. In this way I can ward off impending danger and you can gain a higher understanding of the city." I had remained silent throughout Atlantis' narration. She looked at me in a way that indicated that she was done.

"Oh. Wow. That's…really cool." And it was. It really was. "Oh! I mean, not the part about the plague and the leaving and the other stuff but the rest of it." My voice faded as I trailed off. She gave me an amused look. "Um…before we go any further is it okay if I ask questions?" She smiled gently at me.

"You many always ask questions. Always." There was a bench on the side of the path we were walking on. "Shall we sit?" I nodded and we sat down beside each other. I was silent for a minute, trying to decide where I should start. I opted for the obvious.

"How? How can I possibly have this gene? My parents are both from Earth. My mother doesn't even **have** the ATA gene."

"What you say is true, and for awhile I wondered much the same. I did some careful and, at times, confusing research into the matter and what I discovered is this: your father is not just a direct descendant of the Ancients who survived the plague. He is a direct descendant of the son of the Head Councilwoman whose gene was used to create the Voqui gene. Why his gene is still so strong even after so many generations I do not know. My theory on the matter is that some how, in some way, your father's gene changed when you were conceived. Possibly it is because you are a triplet, possibly because you were born here in Atlantis. I do not know and I am afraid that I never will." She closed her eyes and sighed. She opened her eyes again and looked off at something only she could see before refocusing her attention on me.

"But whatever the reason and whatever the cause, it happened and I am glad. When your people first arrived here, I thought my loneliness had ended. I was wrong, having them so close and yet being unable to speak to them only hurt more than the loneliness. So I am glad that once again I have someone to talk to when I can." She paused momentarily again. I got the feeling she never felt the need to rush anything, ever. "What else would you like to know?" I considered the various questions that were floating about in my mind.

"Why did that text look so familiar if I had never seen it before? Does it have something to do with the gene?"

"It does. The text was my call to you. My speech. The city's language. Your link to me, activated or not, was still strong enough to recognize it, even if you were unable to read it. The voice you heard this morning was much the same, if anyone else had heard it then all they would have heard was nonsense."

"When I was younger I used to try to get as close to the Chair Room as I could without setting off the systems. Sometimes I could get closer than others. Rodney thought I might be sending off some kind of subconscious command to send the systems haywire like that, but it was you. Wasn't it?" Atlantis gave a short bark of laughter in response to my question, followed by a rather sheepish look.

"I'm afraid it was. I do apologize for that, but the chair provides my strongest sense of people. Every time you came near, all my attention would focus there, hoping that you might come and sit in the chair. The closer you came, the more excited I would become and the systems going haywire were the physical representation. After awhile, I realized that my actions seemed to scare you into moving away, and I resolved to keep control.

"By then, though, your father had banned you from the room in the interest of safety. Contrary and rebellious as you were, even at that age, you were reluctant to defy him on that. So I was forced to find an alternative way of speaking to you. However, the method I eventually managed to devise only seemed to worry you further and finally I let it rest. Waiting and watching you and your friends, getting to know you and your character and trying to discover what would override your internal refusal to disobey your father. It took time but I was finally able to devise my plan. 

"I had not meant to enact this until after your eighteenth birthday, the age when the bonding would normally take place. Unfortunately, a situation has arisen that requires that I be able to speak with you and through you to your council."

"Which brings us to why I'm here. I have other questions but they can-" I never go to finish that sentence because suddenly I felt like my body was on fire and my skull was splitting open. I screamed in pain and screamed again continuously as I fell to my knees. I was in pure agony and I wanted nothing more than for it to end. No matter what it meant, I wanted it to **end! **"Atlantis-" I somehow managed to gasp out from behind gritted teeth and between my howls of pain. "What-" I felt hands on either side of my face and the pain eased to bearable levels. I opened my eyes and saw Atlantis kneeling next to me, her face full of concern and worry.

"Ashlei, you must listen. Your friend is trying to separate you from the chair. Our link has not completely formed. If you are separated from me now, before it forms, you will die. You have to get her to stop." The pain flared and I thrashed in response. Atlantis tightened her grip on my face. "Ashlei, the city has a holographics system. You can use it to project an image of yourself." 

"I can tell her to stop?" I pant, helpless to the waves of pain. 

"Unfortunately it does not work in the chair room." I groaned and thrashed again in pain. The waves flared horribly again and I twisted my head out of her grip. She grabbed a hold of my head again and forced me to look at her. "Is there anyone in another part of the city that she would listen to?"

"Daddy." I ended up shrieking my answer as yet another wave of pain hit. What was Del _doing?_

"Alright. Ashlei, listen." She forced my head up to look into her eyes. "You have to stand up. I can activate the holographics and ease your pain slightly, but you must be the one to speak. Understand?" I nod in understanding. The pain eases. "You have to stand up to do this." She helped me to my feet and supported me. "When I activate the holographics you're going to see your father and whoever is in the hallway with him. He'll see you. Tell him that Del has to stop. Tell him if she doesn't, you will die. Don't go into specifics, you won't have the time. Are you ready?" I whimper faintly, but manage a weak thumbs up. All of a sudden the park disappears and I'm standing in a corridor, watching my father pace back and forth. He must have been heading to or from the control room because the corridor was near there. Laura Beckett, formerly Laura Cadman, was sitting on the floor, one elbow resting on her propped up knee and her head leaning back against the wall.

"Hurry, Ashlei." I heard faintly and felt a light twinge of pain.

"Daddy." Laura's head snapped up and she jumped to her feet as my dad spun around.

"Ashlei?" Laura asks in confusion. 

"Sort of. Listen, Daddy, whatever Del's doing, you have to tell her to stop." I felt another, stronger twinge of pain.

"Ash, you're passed out in the chair and she can't disconnect it. She-" he protests in confusion.

"Tell her to stop trying."

"But-" He stops as yet another wave of pain hits, my knees shake and I can't quite hold back a slight cry of pain.

"Quickly, Ashlei. You're time is almost up." Atlantis whispers.

"Listen, Daddy. Trust me. If she doesn't stop I'll-" the pain is building and breathing is becoming harder. "She-stop-tell her-I'll-I'll-" I never finish because the pain had returned full force and I scream. My father's image fades to be replaced by the sky over the park and Atlantis' terrified face. I vaguely hear Dad ordering Del to stop and not ask questions. Something about the way he says it must register with my stubborn friend because the pain stops and doesn't come back.

Atlantis lets me go and I lie down slowly. I'm shaking lightly all over and there's this kind of fizzy after-pain feeling. I sit up and stare off into space for awhile, trying to get my mind around what had just happened. Stunned, I say the first thing that comes to mind.

"She promised me she wouldn't freak out." Blue eyes twinkle as Atlantis chuckles softly.

"Do not blame her. She did well for her nature to wait as long as she did. Time passes slower here than it does out there. To her, it has been many hours since you sat down in the chair. It would be well after nightfall to them. Possibly even after midnight." I stare at her in amazement.

"Oh. Well, no wonder it was so dark then." I pause for a second as something occurs to me. "Listen, I know that there's something we need to take care of, but is it okay if I let them know that I'm okay? Daddy was pacing and he really doesn't do that that often. I hate that I'm the one who has pushed him to it." Atlantis levels her gaze at me and I feel likes she's staring into my soul, which, when I think about it, is probably entirely possible. Whatever she sees, it seems to satisfy her because she inclines her head slightly.

"To activate holographics, search your mind for the trigger and pull as you would any other system, thinking only of where you wish to appear at the same time."

I close my eyes and do as she told me. When I open them again, I'm back in the corridor with my dad and Laura. My dad is pacing again and Laura is sprawled on the floor, her jacket folded up under her as a pillow.

"Hey, Daddy." I whisper so as not to wake Laura up.

"Oh, God. Ash, you're okay? I thought maybe-"

"I'm alright. I'll continue to be alright as long as no one tries to disconnect me again."

"I'll be sure and tell Del and Rayne, although neither is likely to so much as touch you right now. They're terrified. We all are, you've been in that chair for hours now."

"What time is it?"

"Around two in the morning. How much longer is this going to take?"

"I really don't know. I promise you I'll explain everything when this is over." I tell him. "Completely and with detail. But I have to go now." he opens his mouth and for a second I think he might say something, but he closes his mouth again and sighs. I deactivate the holographics and Atlantis and the park reappear before my eyes. "Alright Atlantis, let's hear what the problem is."

"Can you walk, or would you rather sit?"

"If I can walk, I'd like to." I stand up slowly. My legs wobble for a bit, but I stay standing. I take a hesitant step forward and collapse. "On second thought, I'll just stay right here." Atlantis walks over and sits beside me, tucking her legs under her and arranging the skirt of her dress. "Alright. Problem?"

"Since you are the daughter of the then Major Sheppard and Dr. Elizabeth Weir and your friend is Rodney McKay's daughter, I will assume you have heard stories about the raging storm that comes every 20-30 years."

"Yeah, I've heard them. The three of them are kind of reluctant to talk about it. I don't know the exact details."

"Nor do you need to know. The problem has nothing to do with those details. The problem is the storm. I am equipped with sensors that monitor the activity of the ocean and its life and predict when the storm will return. I have never been wrong. The storm is coming."

"How long?"

"Two months. With luck that will be enough time for someone to figure out a way to protect me and all of you."

"Why can't we use the shield?"

"You could, but, as I am sure Dr. McKay will be quick to point out, if you do use it, it will deplete the, what is it that you call it?"

"ZPM?"

"Yes. The ZPM. If you use the shield, it will deplete the ZPM entirely. This means that there will be no more communication with Earth, less systems online, and we will be wide open for attack."

"Okay. So what about the thing they did the first time, with the grounders and the buffer or whatever?"

"It would work, but they'd have to pull the ZPM to avoid overload and after what happened last time, I have a feeling that that plan will be their last resort." She looked at me and I knew she cold tell I was really worried. "Be easy. Last time, Dr. McKay had very little time to think. Now he is being given a little over two months. He should be able to come up with a better solution. But he will need all the time he can get. Our link is finalized. Go and tell them what you have learned." She closed her eyes and then opened them again. "I have lifted the lockdown."

"How do I-"

"Think it." and then she disappeared.

"Think it. Okay." I shut my eyes and think of the chair room and imagine the chair sitting up. I feel myself being forced into and upright position and open my eyes. The first thing I see is the matching worried looks on Del and Rayne's faces. It had worked then.

I stand up and manage to take a few shaky steps forward before I am engulfed in tight hugs from my friends. I hear footsteps pounding towards us down the hallway. They skid to a stop and I am released by my friends only to be pulled into a tighter embrace by someone else. The familiar scent of my dad's shampoo, aftershave, cologne, and laundry detergent assails my nostrils. I get my arms up and hug him back.

"You're okay, you're okay, you're okay." He repeats over and over again.

"Yep. I told you I would be."

"I know. I just-" He stops unable to find the words to explain to me how he felt.

"It's okay, Daddy. I get it." While I may never understand exactly what he went through in the past five hours, I saw the look on his face the second time I had activated the holographics, and I know that he had been terrified. I pull back and he reluctantly lets go, keeping a hand on my shoulder. "Nice as this is, we still have a bit of a problem. I need to talk to Senior Staff. It's really important." I add when he gives me a look.

"Sweetie, it's three in the morning. Can it possibly wait?"

"Uh-uh." I shake my head no apologetically. He looks exhausted, everyone is probably exhausted, but this cannot wait.

Dad considers me for a long moment. Just as I am about to stress the level of importance, he lets out a deep sigh. "Never any peace." He mutters as he reaches up with the hand not on my shoulder to activate his radio. "This is General Sheppard. All Senior Staff report to the Conference room. Now." he adds, I assume to cut off Rodney's protests. He looks at Del and Rayne. "I suppose you two are going to want to come along, too?"

"We may as well." Del answers calmly. "I mean it isn't like Ashlei isn't going to tell us everything anyway."

"I'd assumed as much." He sighs. There's a pause and then "Oddly, that doesn't bother me at all. C'mon." He beckons us to follow him as he walks out of the room. Del and Rayne share an excited look behind his back that is quickly replaced by looks of calm when Dad turns around to look at me. "There isn't really a whole lot I can say to you to warn you or prepare you for this. I'll do what I can to keep them from grilling you too badly but…" He trails off for a minute. "Be ready for the Spanish Inquisition."

"The Spanish what?" I ask, confused. He narrows his eyes, decides I'm being completely serious, which I am, and lets out another deep sigh. His hand leaves my shoulder and rakes through his hair in the odd habit we share that usually indicates our frustration.

"I can't believe I'm letting you do this." He drops his hand back to his side. "Well, c'mon you three, before they get really mad." That was pretty much the end of any talk between us until we reached the Conference room.

Four and a half hours later, I'm standing on the balcony that wraps around the tower, watching the sunrise. Sunrise is always beautiful in Atlantis, the light bounces off the water and creates all kinds of pretty colors. Today, for some reason, it seems different. It seems…Better.

I spent nearly three hours with the Senior Staff. First, I told them what exactly had happened to me. Then I had to tell it twice more because they kept getting a little confused and lost. Then I had to give Merric a reason, a good one, as to why they should believe me. To my utter surprise and delight, the rest of the Staff had glared at him and demanded that he give them a good reason they shouldn't.

Once that problem had finally been settled, I explained the more pressing issue of the storm. This resulted in slight chaos and harried explanations from Rodney about why they couldn't use the shield. The fact that the previous solution wasn't even mentioned by Merric, only got me all the more interested in finding out what had happened. Once things had calmed down, there was a question and answer time. Rayne, Del, and I were then asked to leave so that they could debate over possible solutions and do whatever else it is that they do in there.

Upon reaching our tower, I was not in the slightest bit surprised to find all of its occupants waiting for us in the lounge. The oldest were still awake, the youngest were fast asleep. We woke them up and I gave a quick, condensed version of what I'd told Senior Staff. They didn't ask questions and after I reassured them that I was fine, they had all gone to bed. My head too full to even think of sleeping right then, I had come out here.

Behind me, I hear the familiar sound of a door opening and faint footsteps as someone else walks out onto the balcony. I don't bother turning around. I know who it is. I hear the door close again and he stands there for a minute or two in silence before joining me against the rail.

"I need to apologize." Daddy starts. "No," he corrects himself. "I want to apologize. I want to apologize for the way I've treated you. It wasn't abusive or cruel or unkind in anyway, or at least I don't think it was. The extent of the overprotection was almost worse. You have to understand that when you and your brothers were born, I promised myself three things. First, I wasn't going to spoil any of you. Second, I wasn't going to stand in the way of the three of you doing what you wanted with your lives, with a few exceptions of course. Third, when you were old enough, able to, and wanted to, I was going to let you take care of yourselves.

"To date I have failed in all three with you, though I have somehow managed to mostly succeed so far with your brothers. You…The first I failed with you almost immediately, but every time I strengthen my resolve on the matter, I'd remember the way you looked at me the first time I held you." He gives a wry snort. "God, your mother was so mad." He finally turns his head to look at me. "Did I ever tell you about that?" Unwilling to speak lest I ruin the mood I shake my head no. "The doctor had put Aaron in the cradle so he could have his hands free. Alan came so quickly after you that he wasn't able to put you in the cradle and just handed you to me instead. I looked at you and our eyes met and that was it. From that moment onward, you've had me wrapped around your little finger, and so I failed the first.

"In the second, I've failed you twice now. Once was today, by trying to stop you from sitting in the chair. I don't blame you for not listening and I am definitely not mad at you for it. Just in case you thought I was. The other failure…" he stops completely here and turns his head to look back out at the sunrise. "My earlier and current failure…" he trails off again for a moment before sighing. "Ashlei, nobody really wants their child in the military. Especially not people who have been through everything I've been through. But today you showed me two things. First you showed me that you wouldn't blindly follows orders. You're willing to defy them to protect people. The other thing you showed me shocked me. You were in the chair room. As you pointed out earlier, I never could have stopped you. You still asked. You could have just done it, but you didn't. it takes a strong person to ask for permission to do something when they can't be stopped. Later you even made sure we knew you were okay. You demonstrated an understanding of other people's feelings." He looked back at me. "I don't regret not wanting you in the military. I still don't particularly like the idea, but after what you showed me today, I'm more open to it." I feel excitement welling up, but I control it. He hadn't said I could and besides, we were still in the middle of a very serious discussion.

"The third promise I made, I have no good excuse for breaking, except maybe that I don't want to lose you. That's it. no complicated explanations, no trying to rationalize. You meant the world to me and I would rather have you hate me for the rest of your life than lose you. It was while I was trying desperately to convey over a radio my exact feelings on the matter that I realized this. When you somehow managed to not only understand but also managed to tell me that you understood, I realized the fault in my reasoning. I wasn't protecting you to keep you from pain; I was protecting you to keep me from pain. You don't even really need the protection. You can take care of yourself and you want to do it, so I'm going to let you. So tomorrow, or later today come find me. I'll drop whatever I'm doing and give you a serious flying lesson." At this I couldn't contain my excitement anymore.

"Really?" I ask to dispel my doubts.

"Yeah. Really. A real serious flying lesson like the kind I should have given you years ago. Plus full permission to fly out to the mainland as long as your mother or I okay it first and you tell us where you're going." I let go of the rail and hug him. He laughs, and it's a full, heartfelt laugh. "Radios will be required but your mother, Ronon, Teyla, Rodney, Marissa and I have decided that you girls are old enough to head over there alone if you go together." I hug him even tighter. I can't believe it. I really can't believe it. I eventually let go and look up into laughing hazel eyes. "I have to go now, Sweetie. I haven't slept in twenty-four hours and if Ronon catches me before I make it back to bed, I'll be running with him. I'm already exhausted and I'd probably pass out so I have to go so I don't run into him, okay? Give me a couple of hours for sleep and the come find me whenever you're ready. I'll be all yours for that lesson, okay?"

"Yeah, Daddy. Thank you."

"Don't thank me. It shouldn't have taken me this long to offer." He pulls me into a last hug, kisses my forehead and looks out at the water and the now full dawn. "That really is gorgeous. Twenty-five years I've been living here and I never get tired of that. I'll see you later, Sweetie." He leaves with a faint bounce in his step that I haven't seen for awhile. He's humming some song or another. _AJ was right_, I realize. _He really is like a kid._

'**_He is' _**I hear Atlantis whisper faintly in the back of my mind. The whispering that had always been there if I had just listened. **_'Your father is very dear to me, and you are more so. He need not worry; I will care for you as much as possible. But your father is also right. It is dawn. You must sleep. There will be time for thought and worry later. Sleep, Ashlei.'_**

"Alright." I concede as I slip back through the lounge and into my room. I change quickly into my sleep pants and camisole before stretching out happily on the bed. Suddenly I feel tired beyond measure. "Atlantis, just one question?" I yawn.

'**_Very well._**'

"It wasn't an accident when I found the corridors today, was it?" her laughter reminds me vaguely of waves crashing against the pier and that sound lulls me to sleep. Her laughter is answer enough for me.

**Epilogue**

The old woman pauses in her narrative at the chiming of her door. She glances out her window and realizes with surprise that it is almost dusk already.

"My, my. Look at the time. Come on in Nikki." A lovely young lady in a flowing light green dress walks through the now open door.

"Grandma, how do you always know that it's me?" she asks in a tone that suggests that they've had this conversation many times. A pair of twin boys and the littlest girl, the one that had been hiding in the closet, run over to Nikki with cries of 'mama, mama!' Nikki smiles and picks up her daughter after hugging her sons.

"Because dear, Atlantis always sings when you ring a door chime." Nikki shakes her head.

"Come on kids. I'm to take you back to your parents." She is met with collective whining from all of the children.

"Oh, go on, munchkins." The old woman laughs. "I'll be here tomorrow to continue the story."

"You promise?" a little girl asks.

"Of course I will. Maybe we'll go some place else and sit, but I'll be here to tell the story."

A young man joins Nikki in the doorway. She smiles at him, but the two are clearly not related.

"Hey, Nik. Grandma. Come on kids, let's go." The children reluctantly get up and follow the two adults out of the room. The old woman watched them leave with a smile on her face. Right before he leaves, the young man turns back. "Are you coming down to Council tonight?"

"Am I welcome?" She asks sweetly. He blinks in surprise.

"Why wouldn't you be?"

"I've retired."

"You retired a long time ago. You're always welcome and it's good for us to have an opinion from someone who has experience with such things." He walks back into the room and sits on the bed. "Not to mention the fact that I'd think you'd want to get down from this tower more often. You are the only one up here, what with the decision to leave the rooms vacant out of respect to their former occupants. I know you aren't actually my grandmother, but you've been as much of one as my real grandparents were."

"That was the whole adopted family thing. Your grandmother, Nikki's grandmother, myself and our friends agreed that we would be adoptive family to each others children. And yes, Jonathan, I think I will come down to Council tonight. Would you be so kind as to escort me?"

"Of course." He bows and holds out his arm to help the old woman to her feet. She takes a moment to place the book back in its place. She touches it lovingly and for a moment her mind seems to be elsewhere.

"You really miss them don't you?"

"I do. It's hard not to. They were powerful people, but they were kind. They would always make time for me. If I needed them, they were always there. They were dynamic, charismatic people. They could make a day brighter just by walking into a room. I do miss them and it hurts, but I'd be more worried if it didn't. Now, dear, let us go to this council meeting." The two walk out of the room and the door swooshes closed.

A picture sits in a silver frame on the bedside table. One single picture of five young women. All five of them are laughing and in the middle a far younger version of the picture's owner is being hugged tightly by three of the others while the fourth with dark brown hair and laser blue eyes sits slightly away, laughing but seemingly more concerned with the cake on her face. The remains of the cake are in the hands of the girl in the middle.

The End, (for now)

A/N: YAY!! It's finally done. Finally!! Hoorah. I offer cookies to all who have made it this far and also candy to those who have reviewed and will review. I am pleased to announce that I have created the titles and basic plotlines for all four parts of this story. The titles have more than one meaning btw. See if you can figure it out. Also, as I recall, I have also challenged you to discern the identity of the old woman. This Epilogue is your second hint. I can promise that every prologue and epilogue will follow the same pattern of hint giving. I can also assure you that the name will be given in the final epilogue and that, regardless of whether or not someone figures it out, there will be a prologue and epilogue to every story. If only because I have half of them written already. So that's that then. Hoorah for the end of this story. Give me your vote on how you want the next story and until then:  
This is Nimeria OUT!!


End file.
